Election Laws (Amendment) Bill: Linking Aadhaar with Electoral roll optional, not mandatory, says Rijiju

New Delhi [India], December 20 (ANI): Amid uproar by the opposition, Lok Sabha passed the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill which contains the provision of linking Aadhaar to an electoral roll to churn out fake voters, said Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, adding that linking Aadhar is optional, not mandatory.

Speaking to ANI here in New Delhi, Kiren Rijiju said the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill would allow the electoral roll to be linked with Aadhar cards. It will be optional, not mandatory but it will help us to sieve out fake voters.

Rijiju said that there should be a proper discussion on election reforms. The Opposition was asked to participate and voice their opinions in the discussion, but they created chaos.

Rijiju said, "The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill proposes to replace the word 'wife' with 'spouse' to make the act (Representation of the People Act of 1951) gender-neutral. It will also expand the limits of the election premises acquisition."

"Even after 18 years, the system said that one has to wait a whole year to exercise their voting rights if they could not register on January 1 (of the year of revision of electoral roll). This bill will allow 4 qualifying dates a year to register as voters," Rijiju said.

Amid uproar by the opposition, Lok Sabha passed the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill on Monday.

The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 seeks to allow electoral registration officers to seek the Aadhaar number of people who want to register as voters "for the purpose of establishing identity."

The Bill also seeks to allow the electoral registration officers to get Aadhaar numbers from "persons already included in the electoral roll for the purposes of authentication of entries in the electoral roll, and to identify registration of the name of the same person in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency."

Reacting to the introduction of the bill, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday said that the Centre is curtailing the independence of the Election Commission by bringing the legislation. (ANI)