Aadhaar linkage mandatory for voting

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao made it clear on Monday that linking voter ID cards with Aadhaar was mandatory and the government would implement the Election Commission of India’s directions in this regard in letter and spirit.

State chief electoral officer Bhanwarlal met the Chief Minister at the latter’s camp office and discussed the modalities involved in linking voter ID cards with Aadhaar as per the instructions of the ECI. The Chief Minister said that government would help the ECI in its endeavour to weed out the bogus voters in the State. He said that linking Aadhaar with voter ID cards would be completed in the first phase in Hyderabad and later in the entire State. He assured the CEO that the programme would be completed entirely in the city in the next 15 to 20 days. He made it clear that those who did not link their Aadhaar with voter ID cards would not have right to exercise their franchise.

The Chief Minister told the CEO that the menace of bogus voters was high in the city and the linking process



should begin from here. It is estimated that there were about 15 lakh bogus voters in the city. The Chief Minister pointed out that the voter – population ratio in the city was much higher than the 66 per cent stipulated by the Election Commission of India. He said that compiling of voter list should be completed in the city at the earliest since the ward re-division has to be done. Making it clear that the voters of Hyderabad who did not link their voter IDs with Aadhaar would not have right to vote, he said that 24 Assembly constituencies out of 119 of the State were in the city. He said that the bogus voters could affect the politics and this would not be good for democracy.

Seeking the cooperation of the political parties, he stressed the need for an intensive campaign on linking of Aadhaar with voter ID cards. The Chief Minister said that the names of the voters who did not link their ID with Aadhaar should be removed from the lists. He wanted that there should be single voter list for the Assembly and local body elections.