Trinamool in damage control mode over ECI’s statement on duplication of EPIC numbers
Kolkata, March 2 (IANS) Trinamool Congress is in a damage control mode following a statement from the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday where the commission has indirectly refuted the allegations brought forward by the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee last week of electors of two different states having identical EPIC numbers.
While addressing the extended organisational meeting of Trinamool Congress last week, the Chief Minister accused the BJP of enlisting voters from other states in the voters’ list in West Bengal, and to substantiate her allegations she referred to a couple of instances of electors of two different states having identical EPIC numbers.
On Sunday, ECI issued a statement clarifying that duplication of EPIC numbers does not imply duplicate/fake voters. The commission has also clarified that some cases of duplicate EPIC numbers were caused by the use of identical alphanumeric series by two different states or Union Territories.
Following the statement issued by the ECI, the Trinamool Congress state general secretary in West Bengal Kunal Ghosh has appeared on the scene as a damage control exercise.
Ghosh had issued a counter statement claiming that the commission’s statement in a way is an acceptance of the allegations of Mamata Banerjee electors of two different states having identical EPIC numbers.
As per Ghosh, after the conspiracy was exposed by the Trinamool Congress, the commission had started scrambling for damage control.
“The complaint of the same voter’s name appearing in multiple states has been validated. How this happened remains unanswered. With everything exposed, the commission has said it will take some steps. But we won’t trust/rely on their words. As per our party leader’s instructions, booth-wise and address-wise scrutiny of the voter list will continue in full swing,” Ghosh claimed in the statement.
He also claimed that whatever news about ECI appears in the media, there is no reason to be satisfied and hence the scrutiny work will proceed as per the leader’s directive.
–IANS
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