Aadhaar-Voter Id linking: Urban Prayagraj voters far behind rural electorate

Urban voters of Prayagraj, who are always trailing their rural counterparts in exercising their right to franchise, are also lagging in the task of getting their Aadhaar numbers linked to their Voter Id cards

Urban voters of Prayagraj, who are always trailing their rural counterparts in exercising their right to franchise, are also lagging in the task of getting their Aadhaar numbers linked to their Voter Id cards.

For representation only (Sourced)

In the Allahabad North assembly constituency of Prayagraj (urban), only 415 people have applied online and 1,219 offline (total 1634) in the first 22 days of linking their Aadhaar cards with their Voter Id cards. On the other hand, 48,092 people have applied online, while another 2011 have applied offline (total 50,103) in the Bara assembly constituency (mainly rural), official district election records show.

The Election Commission’s (EC) is undertaking a campaign to promote the linking of Voter ID cards with Aadhaar cards of voters, so that the identity of electors may be established and for authentication of entries in the electoral rolls. Consequently, duplications, caused by the registration of the same person in more than one constituency, or, more than once in the same constituency, may be weeded out.

The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, authorising the linking of Aadhaar with Voter IDs, was passed by the Lok Sabha through a voice vote in December 2021.

For this, a campaign has been started from August 1. In this sequence, a special campaign for the mission was also conducted on August 7 and August 21.

According to the data currently available for the first 22 days of the month for Prayagraj, 1,56,933 voters in the district have made available the details and documents needed for linking their Aadhaar cards with voter ID cards. Among these, 36,895 applications have come offline and 1,20,038 applications have come online, informed district election officials.

However this is just a fraction of the total voters in Prayagraj. For the 2022 assembly polls, the district had over 46.27 lakh registered voters, including more than 25.16 lakh male voters, and more than 21.10 lakh female voters and another 652 transgender voters.

In the online applications, the district’s two urban assembly constituencies of Allahabad North and Allahabad South are lagging behind among all the 12 assembly constituencies of the district, while Allahabad West is only ahead of Phulpur among the rural constituencies, officials said.

“People have the option of online and offline application for getting their Aadhaar cards linked to their Voter Id cards. The campaign will conclude on Wednesday (August 31),” said ADM (Administration) and assistant election officer of Prayagraj Harshdev Pandey.