Trinamool Congress MPs submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission (EC) on Friday, demanding action on the duplicate voter-identity cards issue, and also staged a protest in the Parliament complex.
The members of Parliament of the Mamata Banerjee-led party, which has been raising the issue of duplicate Electors' Photo Identity Cards (EPICs), met the full bench of the EC in the morning and submitted the memorandum demanding that the poll panel reveal the number of duplicate EPICs and that voter-identity cards should not be linked with Aadhaar.
The TMC leaders then marched from the EC office to Vijay Chowk and then to the Parliament complex, where they staged a protest over the issue.
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"This EPIC duplication is a big scandal. The EC has to get to the bottom of this scandal," TMC's Rajya Sabha parliamentary party leader Derek O'Brien said.
The MPs held up placards displaying images of voter-identity cards, with the word "duplicate" written on it.
Talking to reporters in the Parliament complex later, TMC's deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Sagarika Ghose claimed that they wanted to raise the issue inside the House as well but the proceedings of the Upper House were disrupted by the members of the treasury benches.
"Today, we, the Trinamool Congress, went to the Election Commission. We presented a memorandum to the EC asking that the issue of duplicate EPICs be taken up," Ghose said.
"We have also asked that Aadhaar cards should not be linked with EPICs. We participated in a peaceful march to bring to notice our demand," she added.
"Today, we wanted to raise the same issue (in the Rajya Sabha) but we found the treasury benches disrupting the House without giving any notice. There were two ministers present in the House, they could not control them. The House has been adjourned because of the (Narendra) Modi government, the treasury benches. This is shocking," Ghose said.
In its memorandum, the TMC has urged the EC to explain how it will ensure that duplicate and fake Aadhaar numbers will not be linked to EPICs and how fake and ghost voters will not be added to the electoral roll through this mechanism.
"We again reiterate our request that the ECI should, in the interest of transparency, declare the total number of duplicate EPICs that currently exist," the memorandum said.
The TMC leaders also said the proposed exercise of linking EPICs with Aadhaar is premature and will only create more problems rather than solving those.
"Therefore, at this stage, the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) expresses its strong objection to the ECI's proposal of linking EPICs with Aadhaar," they said, urging the poll panel to suspend the process until the concerns raised by the party in the memorandum are addressed comprehensively.
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