Congress raises pitch for re-verification of 73 lakh voters

Before an election, the government makes a list of all the people who are allowed to vote, called the electoral roll.

In Telangana, a state in India, officials are checking this list and cleaning out names that may not belong there.

This clean-up is part of something called the Special Intensive Revision.

The Congress party's team in Telangana says the draft list may remove about 73 lakh names — that is around seven million, three hundred thousand people.

The team says many of those names are people who moved away, are already enrolled elsewhere, or had unclear records.

It thinks that is far too many people to remove.

The party is worried that some people who should still be allowed to vote could lose their names by mistake.

So it has asked the top election official in Telangana to check these names again, slowly and carefully.

It also asked the Election Commission not to remove anyone without a proper check.

The final draft of this voter list is expected to come out on August 17.