The passage of the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 by both the Houses of Parliament has paved the way for linking of electoral roll with Aadhaar ecosystem to eliminate multiple entries of the same person in electoral rolls of different places. Implementing the Act in Assam will be problematic as lakhs of National Register of Citizens (NRC) applicants in the state are unable to get their Aadhaar number due to the locking of their biometrics. As Aadhaar is not proof of citizenship, its linkage will only clean the rolls of multiple entries, but it will not detect the names of Bangladeshi citizens in electoral rolls. The bill, even after being enacted, is not likely to address the apprehension of Assamese and other indigenous communities of losing political power to illegal migrants due to illegal entries of Bangladeshis in the voters' lists. The Opposition parties have expressed apprehension that linking the electoral roll with Aadhar will infringe on the fundamental rights of citizens and may lead to disenfranchisement on a mass scale. The Central Government rejected the apprehension saying that the bill seeks to end bogus voting and make the electoral process more credible. The bill seeks to allow the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) to seek the Aadhaar number of a citizen who seeks to enrol as a voter to establish the identity of the applicant. It also allows the EROs to seek Aadhaar numbers from persons already included in the electoral toll for authentication of entries and detection of multiple entries in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency. It states that no application for inclusion of name in the electoral roll shall be denied and no entries in the electoral roll shall be deleted for the inability of an individual to furnish or intimate Aadhaar number "due to such sufficient cause as may be prescribed" and provided that such individual may be allowed to furnish alternative documents. The government also cited the recommendation of the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Law and Justice to defend the bill. The parliamentary panel expressed the view that "free-and-fair elections are the bedrock of democracy and the latter is a Basic Feature of the Constitution. An error-free Electoral Roll is the sine qua non of the free-and-fair election." Stating that linking of Aadhar number with Electoral Roll "will purify electoral rolls and consequently reduce electoral malpractices", the Committee recommends the Commission to pursue the issue with the Ministry of Law and Justice for initiating necessary amendments in the Representation of the People's Act, 1950 and in the Aadhaar Act to the Government for linking Aadhaar with Electoral Rolls. In 2015, the Election Commission started collecting Aadhaar numbers of electors who volunteered to provide but the programme was suspended following interim order passed by the Supreme Court on August 11, 2015, prohibiting the use of information about Aadhaar details for any purpose other than Public Distribution System and LPG distribution scheme. Following the final judgment by the Supreme Court in the case, the Election Commission proposed the appropriate amendments may be made in the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and in the Aadhaar Act for permitting the election machinery to obtain and use the Aadhaar numbers for electoral roll as a back-end exercise. The difference in interpretations of the bill is bound to divide public opinion despite the agreement that electoral rolls must be error-free and must ensure that there is no bogus voting. Assam, through six-year-long vigorous anti-foreigner's agitation, made the nation realize the importance of error-free electoral rolls. More than multiple entries of Indian citizens, the illegal inclusion of Bangladeshi citizens in the electoral rolls of Assam is a larger issue as it poses the threat of indigenous people of Assam losing political power to illegal migrants. Even after 34 years of the signing of the Assam Accord, the electoral rolls are not free from the names of illegal Bangladeshi migrants. Publication of the final NRC would have facilitated the cleaning of the electoral rolls by linking with the updated citizens' list. The process is in limbo with cases related to NRC pending before the Supreme Court. Biometrics of over 38 lakh NRC applicants- 36.28 lakh whose names were excluded from the draft list of updated NRC and submitted a claim for inclusion and two lakh applicants who registered their objections, submitted for claims and objection process has been locked pending publication of the final NRC list. The Aadhaar enrolment of these NRC applicants is denied due to the locking of biometrics which has delayed the implementation of many Aadhaar-linked flagship schemes and programmes such as the One Nation One Ration Card in the state. An Aadhaar-based correction of electoral rolls in Assam will be possible only after these biometrics are unlocked by removing impediments of NRC.