‘Congress had asked for Aadhaar-voter ID link’

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, in his response to the discussion on the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 in the Rajya Sabha, said the Opposition did not have any basis to protest against the Bill. (Source: PTI)

On the day Parliament passed the Bill linking the electoral roll with Aadhaar amid protests from the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Government sources on Tuesday pointed out that political parties, including the Congress, had called for the linking.

The Election Commission had held a meeting with political parties to discuss reforms on August 27, 2018, the sources pointed out. The EC’s press statement released that day listed out the topics discussed including “Political parties urged the Commission to link Aadhaar numbers with electors’ detail for better electoral roll management.”

Also read | Linking Aadhaar with voter ID will solve multiple enrolment problem: Government sources

Ahead of the Assembly polls, the Madhya Pradesh unit of the Congress too had urged the Chief Election Commissioner during an April 2018 meeting to re-verify the list of voters, alleging that there were many fake voters there, the sources said.

Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, in his response to the discussion on the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 in the Rajya Sabha, said the Opposition did not have any basis to protest against the Bill. He also tweeted a media report from 2018 about the Madhya Pradesh Congress’ demand for it with the word “Facts”.