Sanjay Kumar, psephologist and Lokniti-CSDS fellow, apologized on tuesday for his comments related to the Maharashtra elections. His post suggested a rapid decrease in voter turnout across two assembly constituencies compared to a Lok Sabha election that had taken place just a few months earlier.
"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," the Lokniti-CSDS co-director wrote on X.
Sanjay Kumar's apology triggered a massive backlash from the ruling BJP, which ruled out that it was "an honest error".
BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya intensified his tirade against psephologist Sanjay Kumar on Tuesday after the latter had apologized for a misleading tweet regarding the Maharashtra elections. "The apology is in, and Sanjay Kumar is out. Incidentally, when did this protégé of Yogendra Yadav ever get something correct? In all his forecasts prior to each and every election, the BJP is allegedly losing—and when the opposite occurs, he appears on TV explaining how the BJP managed to win. Convenient. He must believe that TV viewers are fools," Malviya posted.
Kumar's since-deleted tweet had asserted significant differences in the number of voters between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in two of the constituencies. He'd claimed that the number of voters in Ramtek went down from 4,66,203 in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to 2,86,931 in the Assembly polls, an alleged "38.45% decrease." In the same vein, he'd asserted the numbers in Devlali fell from 4,56,072 to 2,88,141, an alleged "36.82% decrease.
Malviya went on to claim, "The very institution whose figures Rahul Gandhi relied upon to insult the voters of Maharashtra has now conceded that its own numbers were incorrect — not only on Maharashtra, but even on SIR."
The row comes in the wake of growing standoff between the INDIA alliance and the Election Commission of India (ECI). On August 7, Rahul Gandhi had made a presentation alleging "vote chori" by the poll body in Karnataka's Mahadevapura constituency. Opposition leaders had also referred to Kumar's Maharashtra data to support their charges against the ECI and the BJP.
On Sunday, Gandhi went a step further, branding the ECI’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar a “conspiracy to steal” the upcoming Assembly elections.
The poll body reacted sharply, calling the allegations "misleading." Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar asserted, "Using phrases like vote chori to mislead people is a disrespect to the Constitution." In a press conference, he rubbished allegations of double voting and manipulating voter lists, emphasizing that all stakeholders were functioning to keep Bihar's SIR process transparent.
The CEC also dared Rahul Gandhi to file an affidavit within seven days supporting his allegations of malpractices in the electoral rolls.
"If no declaration under oath given within 7 days, claims will be considered baseless and invalid…," he said, adding that those making unfounded allegations should apologise to the nation.
Amid its ongoing impasse with the Election Commission, the INDIA bloc on Monday suggested that it may seek to impeach Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. The opposition bloc accused Kumar of acting “as a spokesman for the BJP” and using the poll body to intimidate rival parties.
The bloc claimed that the Commission has “lost its capacity” to ensure a level playing field for all parties in elections and is being controlled by officials acting contrary to the principles of electoral democracy, who are preventing scrutiny of claims of voter fraud.
Though the idea of instigating Kumar’s ouster was mentioned only briefly during an opposition parties’ coordination meeting and has not yet been formalised, the alliance signalled its plans deliberately by indicating that the idea had been discussed and has broad support among partners.
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