Alleged fact-checker and Islamist Mohammed Zubair recently got fact-checked by the official handle of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Uttar Pradesh, after he alleged that the Election Commission of India (ECI) had issued four voter ID cards to an individual who had submitted only two applications under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Zubair shared a screenshot showing four voter ID records bearing similar personal details and claimed that several voters whose names were missing from the draft electoral roll published on January 6 had submitted Form 6 applications for inclusion. According to him, in some cases, two applications were submitted for the same individual, following which the Election Commission issued four voter ID cards.
“Several voters whose names were missing from the draft electoral roll (jan 6th) submitted Form 6 for inclusion. In some cases, two applications were submitted for the same person and the Election Commission went ahead and issued four voter IDs,” Zubair wrote.
He further mocked the alleged duplication, describing it as a “Buy one get one free” scheme and claiming that there were several such cases. He also tagged the official handle of the Chief Electoral Officer, Uttar Pradesh.
The screenshot shared by Zubair contained four search-result panels from the Voter Helpline app, displaying voter records with the same first name, Sunder, age of 34, gender, and district and parliamentary constituency of Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. The EPIC numbers have the prefixes SGX374, SGX377 and SGX375, with two panels showing the same EPIC number prefix.
The UP CEO’s office responded directly to Zubair, disputing his claim that the individual had submitted only two applications.
“Mr Fact-checker please fact-check your own facts,” the official handle wrote, adding that there was no “Buy one Get one free” scheme operated by the Election Commission.
According to the CEO’s office, the individual had actually submitted four applications, not two, as claimed by Zubair.
The official handle challenged Zubair to substantiate his allegation by publishing the reference numbers of the two applications he claimed had been submitted. It said it would then publish the reference numbers of the remaining two applications.
“If you want to dispute our facts then you post the reference numbers of two applications that you claim he had submitted and we will post the reference number of the remaining two,” the response stated.
ECI Acknowledges Longstanding Issue of Duplicate EPIC Cards
While rejecting Zubair’s specific claim, the UP CEO’s office acknowledged that the generation of multiple Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) following the submission of multiple applications by the same individual was a longstanding issue.
The office said the Election Commission periodically undertakes deduplication through ECINET, its digital platform, to identify and address such cases.
It added that efforts were underway to detect multiple applications submitted by the same individual at the application stage itself, expressing confidence that the objective would be achieved soon.
The official handle also accused Zubair of making “patently false statements” about the Election Commission and attempting to create disaffection among citizens towards a constitutional body. It advised him to correct his post by amending or deleting it after conducting due diligence.
Mr Fact-checker please fact-check your own facts.
There is no such scheme as “Buy one Get one free” scheme by Election Commission.
As per your post, the voter had submitted only two applications and he got 4 EPIC cards.This statement is false.
The voter had submitted 4 applications.
If you want to dispute our facts then you post the reference numbers of two applications that you claim he had submitted and we will post the reference number of the remaining two.
The problem of generation of multiple EPICs on submission of multiple forms of an individual is a long standing one. We do deduplication through ECINET periodically. We are on path to achieving the objective of catching multiple forms submitted by an individual at the submission stage only. We will achieve our objective very soon.
Please do not incite people by making patently false statements about ECI and thereby trying to create disaffection among the citizens towards a Constitutional Body.
You are advised to rectify your mistake by amending or deleting your post after completing your own due diligence now that you have been informed by us about your wrong information.
— CEO Uttar Pradesh (@ceoup) October 17, 2026
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