Majority of Indians support Aadhaar, voter ID card linking, claims survey

New Delhi: Most Indian citizens agree with the Election Commission's move of linking the Aadhaar card with voter ID card to eliminate fraud and duplicate voters and enable electronic voting in the future.

The Election Commission, back in February 2015 had issued guidelines for linking Aadhaar with Electors' Photo Identity Card (EPIC), popularly known as the voter ID card, as part of the National Electoral Rolls Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP).

However, the Supreme Court had stayed the move in August 2015 ruling and said that the unique identification number or the Aadhaar card will not be used by the respondents for any purpose other than the PDS scheme and in particular for the purpose of distribution of food grains, and cooking fuel such as kerosene.

Earlier this year in July, the Election Commission of India (EIC) had submitted its application to the Supreme Court for the collection of Aadhaar details of voters and linking them to their database.

According to a survey conducted by Local Circles, the citizens said that the linkage of Aadhaar with their voter id card will eliminate duplicate voting, which has been a major concern during the elections.

The survey noted that 88 percent of citizens are in support, while a meagre 10 percent stand in opposition.

A total of 9,160 votes were polled on this question with just two percent choosing not to express their opinion.

It is believed that electronic voting would also make the voting process easier and very comfortable for the citizens. It would also increase the percentage of the people who cast their votes as they will be able to vote from their computer or smart phone sitting anywhere in the world.

A parallel poll was also conducted to seek citizen opinion over the issue of fraudulent voting happening in their area during elections.

A sizable 28 percent answered in a 'yes' and 35 percents said that they were not very sure about it. Only 37 percent said that they were sure fraudulent voting was not happening. More than 6,800 citizens voted on this poll and a large number of them said that fraudulent voting makes the entire voting process ineffective and needs to be curbed.

The government had recently made it mandatory for the citizens to link their Aadhaar with PAN for filing income tax returns. Citizens views suggested that they are agreeing for a similar move to connect the voter ids with Aadhaar.