Congress questions deletion of 790k voters in Maharashtra electoral rolls

The Congress party is questioning a discrepancy of 790,364 voters in Maharashtra's electoral rolls, alleging they were deleted between May and August this year. The party has demanded a high-level inquiry into the matter. Maharashtra Congress general secretary Sandesh Kondvilkar wrote to the state chief electoral officer (CEO), noting figures showed 98,644,413 voters on May 26 versus 97,854,049 on August 31. He questioned how so many voters were removed without a special summary revision drive during that period. A CEO office official said the deletions were part of a pre-SIR process to minimize duplication, removing deceased persons and duplicate entries. The official confirmed the deletions were not in the ASDDO list and noted lists were published monthly on official websites.