Prominent psephologist and Lokniti-CSDS co-director Sanjay Kumar has landed in controversy after deleting a post on X in which he highlighted a surge in number of voters in two Maharashtra Assembly constituencies.
The post, which was quickly seized upon by the Opposition to support its “vote chori” allegations, has drawn strong criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Kumar had claimed that voter numbers rose significantly between the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Nashik West and Hingna. In his post on August 17, he said Nashik West had recorded a 47.38 pc increase and Hingna a 43.08 pc jump.
The figures appeared to lend weight to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s charge of “vote theft” in Maharashtra, a narrative the INDIA bloc has been amplifying since its poor showing in the state elections.
The psephologist later deleted the post, admitting the data was incorrect. “I sincerely apologise for the tweets posted regarding the Maharashtra elections. An error occurred while comparing the data of the 2024 Lok Sabha and the 2024 Assembly. Our Data team misread the data in the row. The tweet has since been removed. I had no intention of dispersing any form of misinformation,” Kumar said.
The BJP, however, accused him of fuelling the Opposition’s claims and said the matter could not be brushed aside as an honest mistake.
BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya wrote on X, “In his exuberance to feed the Congress’s fake narrative on Maharashtra, CSDS put out data without verification. That is not analysis — it is confirmation bias. It’s time we start taking the sanctimonious sermons of the likes of Sanjay Kumar and Yogendra Yadav with not just a pinch, but a sack of salt.”
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Other BJP leaders also weighed in. Shanthi Kumar, the party’s Telangana treasurer, accused the psephologist of giving the Congress a “weapon to attack election officials” and said an apology was not enough. BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said, “Sanjay Kumar of CSDS admits his data on Maharashtra was fake. Based on this fakery, the Congress ecosystem attacked the ECI. Will the Congress apologise for insulting Maharashtra and its great people?”
The controversy comes against the backdrop of Rahul Gandhi’s repeated accusations of electoral fraud. During his “Voter Adhikaar Yatra” in Bihar, the Congress leader alleged that the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the BJP were working in partnership to delete names from the rolls.
In Maharashtra, he claimed there had been a surge of 47 lakh voters between July and November 2024, calling it an example of “vote chori”.
Earlier this month, Rahul Gandhi also cited data from the Mahaevpura Assembly segment in Karnataka to allege manipulation, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah of depriving people of their constitutional rights.
On August 17, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar dismissed the allegations as “baseless” at a press conference, urging Gandhi to provide evidence under oath or withdraw his claims.
The ECI maintained that revisions to electoral rolls, including those in Maharashtra, are part of a transparent process to remove duplicates and deceased voters, not to disenfranchise genuine electors.
The timing of Kumar’s now-deleted post, shared shortly after the CEC’s remarks, was seen by the Opposition as reinforcing its claims. Screenshots of the post were widely circulated, with Congress leaders using it to intensify their attacks on the poll body.
The row has deepened the political clash over voter rolls, with the INDIA bloc threatening to push for an impeachment motion against the Chief Election Commissioner. For the BJP, meanwhile, the episode has bolstered its argument that the Opposition is relying on falsehoods to discredit the electoral process.
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