The Election Commission of India (ECI) is in serious trouble over the issue of ‘ghost’ voters in the electoral rolls. The revelation that multiple voters were registered under the same EPIC (Electors Photo Identity Card) number has sparked a political storm across the country. The controversy escalated when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the Election Commission of illegally including voters from neighboring states in Bengal’s electoral rolls, similar to what allegedly happened in Maharashtra and Delhi. She backed her claim with strong evidence, stating that multiple people were found registered under the same EPIC number.
Following Mamata Banerjee’s serious allegations, opposition parties launched an attack on the Election Commission, leading to a heated exchange of accusations and counter-accusations. The controversy created widespread suspicion, forcing the Election Commission to take strict corrective measures.
On Friday, the Election Commission officially announced that going forward, every voter in the country will have a Unique EPIC Number, meaning no two voters will share the same EPIC number. The EC also declared that initial steps to implement this system would begin within the next three months.
However, soon after this announcement, the Election Commission found itself in another controversy. Opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress, immediately claimed that their allegations had been proven true. They argued that the previous system enabled the creation of ‘phantom’ or ‘ghost’ voters, meaning the government had been manipulating electoral rolls using duplicate EPIC numbers. The opposition parties launched nationwide demands, asserting that the Election Commission’s admission confirmed their claims.
This sudden backlash has landed the Election Commission in double trouble. In response, the Commission was forced to issue an immediate clarification. The EC stated that even if the same EPIC number appeared in different states, the registered individuals were real, separate voters with physical existence, not ‘ghost’ voters. It explained that each voter was listed in a specific constituency and could vote only in their designated polling station. The EC attributed the duplication to manual data entry and decentralized voter registration processes, insisting that duplicate EPIC numbers did not mean fraudulent or non-existent voters.
However, the Election Commission’s explanation has failed to convince opposition parties. Instead, the controversy has deepened. The Trinamool Congress and other opposition groups have rejected the EC’s defense, calling it their moral victory. They claim that the EC’s decision to introduce Unique EPIC Numbers proves that electoral manipulation had indeed occurred in states like Maharashtra and Delhi.
In Maharashtra, the opposition had long accused the Election Commission of artificially increasing voter numbers between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Notably, the state’s voter count surged by 4,902,905 in just five months, a figure Congress leader Rahul Gandhi repeatedly called unnatural. He presented data from the Election Commission’s own website in a press conference, questioning how Maharashtra’s voter count rose from 92,890,445 during the Lok Sabha elections to 97,793,305 during the Assembly elections in just five months. The EC failed to provide a convincing explanation for this increase.
Similarly, in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had raised similar concerns. Given these controversies, even after announcing the Unique EPIC Number system, the Election Commission has been unable to escape accusations of electoral fraud and voter list manipulation.