Maharashtra civic polls: EC to begin campaign to link Aadhar with Voter ID from Aug 1

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Mumbai: The Election Commission of India on Monday announced that the poll body, which is responsible for the preparation of all electoral data, will start a campaign to link voter ID with Aadhar cards from August 1 across Maharashtra, reported ANI quoting Shrikant Deshpande, Chief Election Officer (CEO), Maharashtra. Now Voter ID cards will be linked to Aadhaar cards with a view to establish the identity of electors and authentication of entries in the electoral roll and identify the registration of the name of the same person in more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency, Deshpande added.

This comes as elections are due in several civic bodies in Maharashtra, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)

Now Voter ID cards to be linked to Aadhaar card with a view to establish identity of electors & authentication of entries in electoral roll & to identify registration of name of the same person in more than one constituency or more than once in same constituency: CEO Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/04qrDk1wXB — ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2022

Last year, the bill to link Aadhar card, which is the identification document in India, with the voter IDs was passed in Lok Sabha amid massive outrage by the parliamentarians. The bill is called Election Laws (Amendment) Bill and was passed by a voice vote barely hours after it was introduced by Union law minister Kiren Rijiju in the lower house.

The bill faced massive flak in the parliament leading to the suspension of 12 MPs in Rajya Sabha.

The bill proposes to voluntarily link electoral rolls to Aadhaar numbers and make the language of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, gender neutral. The opposition leaders say linking Aadhaar to electoral rolls will lead to “mass disenfranchisement".

The opposition argues that the linking of Aadhar with Voter ID will lead to various voting discrepancies and give non-residents access to the polling process.