How Voter ID Card Became Mainstay Of Elections
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12 March 2024
First mooted in 1957, the Electors Photo Identity Card made its nationwide debut over three decades later in 1993 to prevent voter impersonation in elections
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What the Election Commission once thought was "not practicable to operate satisfactorily on a large scale", has become a mainstay in India's election system
Image: ANI
A pilot project to issue photo identity cards for voters was undertaken in the Calcutta Parliamentary constituency for a by-election in May 1960
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In 1979 assembly elections in Sikkim, photo identity cards were issued and it was implemented in other northeastern states such as Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland
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The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 1958, had an interesting provision of introducing photo identity cards
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The Bill was enacted into law on December 30, 1958, within days of K V K Sundaram becoming India's second CEC
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In the wake of the 1957 elections, a proposal emerged to fight impersonation at polling stations. The idea: ID cards with photos for voters in urban areas
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Reflecting on the 1962 elections, K V K Sundaram admitted the idea of issuing voter ID cards was scrapped due to impracticalities in large-scale implementation
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It was in 1993 that the Electors Photo Identity Cards were finally introduced
Image: ANI
The Election Commission in 2021 launched the Electronic Electoral Photo Identity Card (e-EPIC)
Image: ANI
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