Though the Election Commission of India has created an electorate database under ERONet, the system can identify duplication of names in electoral rolls only within the State. A pan-India identification of duplication is yet to be made possible, say officials involved in preparation of the rolls.
The issue assumes significance in the light of allegations during the 2018 Assembly elections where a few students from Kerala studying in Dakshina Kannada were registered as voters here while retaining their names in the rolls in their native places. A substantial number of students from Kerala study in colleges in the district. While Dakshina Kannada votes for Lok Sabha polls on April 18, Kerala votes on April 23.
11 students
On May 11, 2018, a case was registered with the Mangaluru South Police against 11 students from Kerala as their names were found in the voter’s list pertaining to Mangaluru South Assembly constituency. This case is among the 22 cases related to offences registered during the Assembly elections in which the city police filed the charge-sheet. A total of 32 cases were registered in 2018.
“These 11 voters have been charged of failure to submit their declaration about the EPIC card in Kerala while registering as voters here,” said Deputy Commissioner and District Electoral Officer S. Sasikanth Senthil.
Mr. Senthil told The Hindu that ECI’s ERONet portal helps in finding duplicate entries on the rolls.
Local inquiry
“When we find the duplicate names in a State, a local inquiry is done before initiating action to remove it,” he said, and added that this system cannot be used to identify duplicate names in the electoral roll between States. However, on a compliant, instances of duplicate names will be looked into.
Mr. Senthil said it was necessary for a voter to declare his earlier EPIC card while applying for inclusion of their name in the rolls of another constituency. The block-level officers have been instructed to remind voters about the declaration while receiving applications, he said.
