Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Thursday informed Rajya Sabha that Aadhaar is only one of several documents for authentication and identification for the purposes of purifying the electoral rolls. He was responding to a question on the linkage of Aadhaar with electoral rolls.

In a written reply, he said that the process of purification of the electoral roll is an ongoing process and involves various stakeholders including political parties, at every stage starting from enrolment of voters, amendment in the roll to effect material changes by virtue of the change of residence, marriage, etc.

The law minister continued, “In the process, the electoral registration officer relies upon various documents and undertakes physical verification, and also disposes of objections if any. The Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 inter-alia envisaged that the electoral registration officer may also require the Aadhaar number for the purposes of authentication of entries in the electoral roll. Therefore, Aadhaar is only one of several documents for authentication and identification for the purposes of purifying the electoral rolls.”

According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), with regard to persons enrolled on the Voter ID database, as per the final publication of the electoral roll as on January 1, 2023, the total number of persons enrolled were 94,50,25,694. Another information is being collected and will be laid on the table of the House.

The Election Commission had launched a programme to collect the Aadhaar number of existing and prospective electors on a voluntary basis in all the states and UTs.

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