7 National and 34 State political parties urged the Election Commission of India (pdf) to link Voter IDs with the Aadhaar card to weed out duplicate voter names. The ECI convened an all-party meeting with the parties to discuss electoral reforms, ahead of the upcoming elections in four states this year and the Lok Sabha elections next year. The ECI said that it would look into all the suggestions from the political parties and respond to them. Linking Aadhaar for removing duplicates and bonafide On its website, the BJP suggested linking of Aadhaar to a citizen's voter ID for: - De-duplicating voters and - The 'feasibility of alternative methods to vote for migrant voters such as postal, proxy, absentee, early and e-voting ballots to facilitate the electoral participation of domestic migrants.' Earlier this year, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) O.P. Rawat said that Voter ID linking with the Aadhaar database would resume when the Supreme Court gave its nod. He said that 32 crore Voter IDs were linked with Aadhaar in just three months. In 2015, the ECI launched a National Electoral Roll Purification & Authentication Programme (NERPAP) to link it to the Aadhaar database. However, an interim order from the Supreme Court in August 2015 prevented linking of Aadhaar to voter rolls. The SC said Aadhaar was only meant for delivery of PDS and LPG distribution scheme. The courts have held in multiple cases that Aadhaar is not a proof of citizenship, but an identity which proves residence. Paid news and social media The…
