New Delhi: The Trinamool Congress on Tuesday dismissed the Election Commission’s clarifications on duplicate voter ID numbers as a “cover-up” and cited the poll panel’s own guidelines to assert that two cards cannot have identical numbers. The TMC on Monday called the duplication in EPIC (Electronic Electoral Photo Identity Card) numbers an “epic scam” and gave the poll panel a 24-hour deadline to “accept its mistake”.

Party’s Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale on Tuesday shared on X excerpts from the ‘Handbook For Electoral Registration Officers’ to counter the poll panel’s clarifications on the issue, which was first raised by TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

“Yesterday, the All India Trinamool Congress had given Election Commission of India 24 hours to admit and accept their blunder on the duplicate voter ID fraud issue. Clearly, the ECI, which has been exposed, wants to brazen it out,” Gokhale said.

“The ‘clarification’ given by ECI (on Sunday) in response to CM Mamata Banerjee is actually a cover-up. They have admitted there’s something wrong but are refusing to accept it. The false ‘clarification’ given by the ECI contradicts its own rules and guidelines,” he said.

He said the process of issuing the photo ID cards is laid down in the ECI’s ‘Handbook For Electoral Registration Officers’. While the EC said photo ID cards with the same numbers were issued to multiple voters due to certain states using the same “alphanumeric series”, Gokhale shared excerpts from the handbook and said it was impossible to do so as the Functional Unique Serial Numbers (FUSN) are different for every Assembly constituency. “EPIC card numbers are an alphanumeric sequence of three letters and seven digits.

The ECI handbook clearly states that the three letters, known as a Functional Unique Serial Number (FUSN), are different for every Assembly constituency,” he said. “Therefore, it is impossible for voters in two different assembly constituencies (even in the same state) to have the same first 3 letters on their EPIC. How is it then that the same EPIC numbers as voters in West Bengal have been allotted to random people in Haryana, Gujarat, and other states?” he said.

Countering the EC’s clarification that even with two people having the same EPIC number, they can only vote in their respective constituency where they are enrolled, he said the voter is linked to his photo by the EPIC number.

“In photo electoral rolls, the elector is linked to his photo by the EPIC number. Therefore, when a voter in Bengal goes to cast their vote, their photo on the electoral roll will be different if the same EPIC number has been allotted to a person in another state. “This will lead to the refusal of voting due to a photo mismatch. By allotting the same EPIC numbers in different states, voting can be denied to those who are likely to vote for non-BJP parties due to photo mismatch,” he said.