With the Chennai Corporation starting a drive to link Aadhaar with the electoral database, the number of electors on the rolls in the city is set to reduce.
The linking of electoral rolls with Aadhaar would be voluntary and it will not affect anyone’s right to vote, officials said. They added that the number of electors on the rolls in the city is expected to reduce by 10 to 15 percent if the linking of Aadhaar with the database is successful.
“At least 10 percent of the names on the rolls are reportedly bogus. The linking of Aadhaar may reduce the number of electors. Many people have voting rights in different constituencies in the city. There are people who reportedly have 150 family cards. Such people are likely to have a number of EPIC cards,” said Mangal Raj, former Corporation councillor of Mylapore.
Over 35 lakh electors are enrolled in the 16 assembly constituencies in Chennai. The civic body will link Aadhaar with the electoral database in the zones of Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar, Kodambakkam, Teynampet and Adyar. The other parts of the city will be handled by the district administrations of Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram.
The exercise will prevent duplicate or multiple entries of electors in rolls and fake EPIC cards. Zonal officials in the city have received instructions to take such measures on preventing impersonation during elections with the purified electoral rolls.