TMC sees red as UIDAI deactivates Aadhaar numbers of 34 lakh dead

KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) Thursday hit out at the Election Commission (EC) and threatened to organise protests after UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) disclosed that Aadhaar numbers of around 34 lakh dead people in West Bengal have been deactivated. Assembly elections in the state are scheduled for April-May next year.It is learnt that the UIDAI has recently held a meeting with officials of the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Agarwal’s office and informed them about deactivation of Aadhaar numbers. The EC has been looking for exact number of dead and fake voters in the state through the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state. Around seven crore enumeration forms have been distributed among voters since the month-long SIR process kicked off on November 4. There are 7.66 crore voters in the state, according to the EC.Sources said that besides these 34 lakh dead people in the state, the EC has also identified 13 lakh other deceased people who had no Aadhaar cards. The EC has included Aadhaar card in the list of indicative documents that people will have to submit as proof of identity during the SIR.The TMC leadership in the state has strongly opposed the UIDAI findings, claiming that it’s a pre-planned move of the EC. The ruling party has raised questions about the authenticity of the Aadhaar authorities’ claim on the issue. “On what basis the UIDAI deactivated Aadhaar of such huge number of dead people. Earlier, UIDAI had assured that it never collected figures related to Aadhaar deactivation process based on any grounds and name of any states,” the TMC said in a social media post. “It’s a planted exercise to delete names. We will organise mass protests and take legal steps if any genuine voter is deleted from the list,” the party said.Political observers say that with deactivation of Aadhaar cards, the TMC may suffer a setback in the assembly polls.



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