Facing mounting allegations, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has found itself in an uncomfortable position. It’s a case of ‘double trouble’—one issue leading to another. The ECI has been criticized for a long time due to multiple voters having the same Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number. Recently, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the commission of enabling ‘ghost voters’ through duplicate EPIC numbers. As the controversy intensified and suspicions grew, the ECI was compelled to take strict action on the issue.
On Friday, the ECI announced that going forward, no two voters in the country would have the same EPIC number. Instead, a ‘Unique EPIC’ system would be introduced, ensuring that each voter is assigned a distinct number. The commission plans to begin preliminary work on this reform within the next three months.
However, the moment this announcement was made, it sparked another controversy—perhaps an even more serious one. Opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress, immediately claimed victory, arguing that their long-standing allegations had been proven true. The implication was clear: duplicate EPIC numbers had allowed the creation of multiple ‘ghost voters’ in the country. With political parties nationwide demanding accountability, the ECI found itself facing ‘double trouble.’
As a result, the ECI was forced to issue yet another clarification. The commission stated that while some voters across different states may have had the same EPIC number, they were still separate individuals with distinct physical identities, not ghost voters. Their names and numbers were properly recorded in their respective constituency voter lists. Therefore, even if the numbers were identical, these voters could not cast ballots in multiple places. The duplication occurred due to the manual entry of voter names and decentralized list preparation, not because any voter was fictitious or duplicated.
In response to the renewed controversy, state election offices have also had to issue statements clarifying the matter. According to these statements, the ECI had been considering the introduction of Unique EPIC numbers for a long time. The commission’s decision was not a reaction to political pressure but part of a planned reform. The process of implementing Unique EPIC numbers will begin within the next three months.