The listing of several voters' homes as "House Number 0" has recently surfaced as a point of confusion and contention, prompting clarification from the Election Commission of India (ECI). This issue gained traction after concerns were raised about the validity of voter entries, with some alleging potential electoral malpractices.
The ECI has clarified that assigning "House Number 0" is a standard practice to ensure that all eligible voters are registered, even those without official house numbers or permanent residential addresses. This includes homeless individuals, residents of unnumbered houses, or voters who left the house number field blank on their electoral forms. According to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, the Election Commission tracks down each voter to ensure their right to vote. He stated that for people who do not have houses and whose address is the place where they sleep at night, sometimes by the roadside, under a bridge, or beside a lamp post, the EC instructs that such voters will be given a notional number. When it is entered into the computer, it shows as 0.
The issue of "House Number 0" gained prominence after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged "vote theft" in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, citing instances of voters with "House Number 0" on their voter IDs as evidence of manipulated voter entries. He claimed that an internal survey of the Congress party revealed a significant number of alleged bogus voters with fake and invalid addresses, including voter entries with house numbers marked as "0". However, the ECI has refuted these allegations, with CEC Gyanesh Kumar dismissing them as baseless and misleading to the public. The ECI maintains that assigning "House Number 0" is an inclusion-focused policy to ensure that no eligible voter is left out, regardless of their housing situation. Nationality, proximity to the booth, and being 18 years of age are the criteria for inclusion, not a formal address.
In Bihar, an analysis of the draft voter list after a special intensive revision showed that as many as 2,92,048 voters had their house number listed as '0', '00', or '000'. An official from the Bihar chief electoral office (CEO) admitted that such errors can occur when voters do not fill in their house numbers, and the ECI website accepts such applications, resulting in the default value of '0' being displayed. The Magadh and Patna regions in Bihar had the highest number of voters with house numbers reading "0".
CEC Gyanesh Kumar also addressed concerns about duplicate Elector Photo Identity Cards (EPICs), explaining that instances of a person holding multiple voter identity cards arise due to migration or administrative lapses. He clarified that the poll authority is working to rectify such mistakes and that duplicate EPICs can occur when a person's name appears on multiple voter lists with different EPIC numbers. According to Kumar, about three lakh such people were found whose EPIC numbers were the same, so their EPIC numbers were changed.
