New Delhi: The Election Commission on Monday reacted to Trinamool Congress spokesperson Saket Gokhale's claims of poll officials forcing people to link their Aadhaar numbers with voter ID saying, the submission of Aadhaar in Form 6B -- a new form issued to share Aadhaar details -- is "voluntary". "No entry in electoral roll shall be deleted on the ground of non-submission of Aadhaar," EC said.
While Citing tweets by the Internet Freedom Foundation, Saket said there have been "many cases" of election officials calling up people forcing them to link voter ID with Aadhaar numbers.
"We've written to the Election Commission today asking to issue a clarification & immediately cease & desist from doing this," he wrote on Twitter.
Gokhale pointed out that the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which considers the linking of electoral data with the Aadhaar number, was passed by Parliament in December 2021.
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"Subsequent to the passing of the Bill, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju informed Parliament that linking of voter I cards with Aadhaar was 'voluntary' and 'not mandatory'."
He asserted that in spite of this, there have been a few instances reported over the last month about booth level officials (BLOS) calling up individuals the nation over and "warning them" that their elector IDs would be dropped and their names erased from the electoral roll if they don't link their Aadhaar numbers.
In its instructions issued to state CEOs on July 4, the Commission had said "furnishing of Aadhaar number is purely voluntary." "...It is again reiterated that submission of Aadhaar by electors is voluntary and their names cannot be struck off from the electoral database merely because of their inablity to furnish Aadhaar," it said.
(With PTI Inputs)