BJP targets Congress’s ‘vote chori’ allegations after psephologist deletes tweets, apologises for ‘error’

Psephologist Sanjay Kumar of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), who had alleged a significant dip in the number of voters in several assembly constituencies of Maharashtra compared to the Lok Sabha election held months earlier, apologised on Tuesday for the ‘error’ and deleted the posts, prompting a huge political slugfest, with the BJP going on an offensive against the Congress. Kumar, who is a professor and co-director of Lokniti, a research programme at the CSDS, had flagged significant voter additions and deletions in the Maharashtra Assembly election.

The BJP has accused the research body of putting out unverified data to feed the “fake narrative” of Congress.

‘I sincerely apologize for the tweets‘

“I sincerely apologize for the tweets posted regarding Maharashtra elections. Error occurred while comparing data of 2024 LS and 2024 AS. The data in row was misread by our data team. The tweet has since been removed. I had no intention of dispersing any form of misinformation,” Kumar said in a post on X.

He had claimed that the number of voters in the Nashik West and Hingna Assembly constituencies went up by 47 per cent and 43 per cent respectively, between the Lok Sabha elections and Maharashtra assembly polls held this year. He also claimed that the number of voters sharply fell in Ramtek and Devlali seats by 38 per cent and 36 per cent respectively.

Congress leaders had used Kumar’s claims in its ‘vote chori’ charge against the Election Commission of India and accused it of colluding with the BJP.

BJP demands apology from Rahul Gandhi

Senior BJP leader Amit Malviya, who is also the party’s IT head, slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, saying the psephologist whose data was used to level ‘vote chori’ allegations has now admitted that his figures were wrong.

Malviya said Rahul Gandhi and the Congress brazenly targeted the Election Commission and went so far as to brand genuine voters as fake and demanded an apology from the Congress leader.

Malviya also slammed CSDS and psephologist Sanjay Kumar in hard-hitting separate tweets.

The Election Commission has already trashed the allegations of Rahul Gandhi and asked him to submit an affidavit on the issue or apologise.

CSDS psephologist alleged over 38% dip in voters

In his now-deleted post on Maharashtra elections, Kumar had claimed that in the assembly constituency 59 (Ramtek) number of voters in 2024 stood at 4,66,203 in the Lok Sabha polls and 2,86,931 in the assembly polls, claiming a “-38.45% decrease” in voters.

Similarly, Kumar claimed that the number of voters in the assembly constituency (Devlali) in Lok Sabha election was 4,56,072, but came down to 2,88,141 in assembly elections, a “36.82% decrease”.

Gandhi alleged ‘vote theft’ in polls by using the Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in Karnataka as a case study. He said the Opposition sensed a problem during the Maharashtra election and started a probe. The INDIA bloc, which won 30 out of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra last year, could not even cross the 50 mark in assembly polls five months later.

Despite Kumar’s admission of error and apology, the Congress is sticking to its allegations. The party said that it might have taken up Kumar’s data, but also corroborated it with evidence it collected from its own sources in Maharashtra.