EC’s new ‘e-sign’ feature makes Aadhaar-linked phone mandatory for voter deletion requests; how it will work

The ‘e-sign’ feature was initiated in the first week of August, CNN-News18 reported citing EC sources

The Election Commission (EC) has initiated an electronic signature (e-sign) feature on its ECINet portal as well as application. With this, anyone seeking to register as a voter, or apply for deletion or correction, must authenticate his or her identity through Aadhaar-linked phone number.

The move comes days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that about 6,000 votes were deleted fraudulently -- by unknown people who used software and impersonated real voters -- in the Aland constituency in Karnataka.

However, the poll body responded saying that “no name is deleted from the roll without issuing a notice to the affected person and giving him an opportunity of being heard.”

The ‘e-sign’ feature was initiated in the first week of August, CNN-News18 reported citing EC sources.

So far, applicants could register themselves as a new voter using Form 6 (application for inclusion of name in the electoral roll), or remove a name -- for instance, in the case of a deceased person -- using Form 7 (application for objecting inclusion or seeking deletion of name in electoral roll), on the ECINet portal by simply connecting a phone number with an existing Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number.

However, now, after entering the required information, the voter is taken to an external e-sign portal hosted by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) to verify their Aadhaar by sending an OTP on the phone number linked with it, the CNN-News18 report added. After completing this authentication, the user is then redirected to the EC site.

Election Commission revealed that while over 6,000 applications were submitted to delete names from the voters' list in Aland, only 24 were found to be valid and approved. The remaining 5,994 were rejected after verification.

An FIR was filed by the Election Commission itself to investigate the suspicious deletion attempts, it said.

As per Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, no name is deleted from the roll without issuing a notice to the affected person and giving him an opportunity of being heard.