CSDS Pollster Sanjay Kumar Retracts Voter Fraud Claims In Maharashtra, BJP Slams “Fake Narrative”

The debate over alleged irregularities in Maharashtra’s voter lists raised by the opposition parties led by Congress took a nosedive after noted psephologist Sanjay Kumar of Lokniti-CSDS retracted a post that had flagged dramatic swings in the electorate between the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

In his now-deleted post on X, Kumar had claimed that constituencies such as Ramtek and Deolali saw voter counts drop by nearly 40 per cent within six months.

The data, presented with constituency codes and exact figures, quickly drew sharp political reactions, feeding into the opposition’s ongoing charge of “vote chori”.

However, Kumar later issued a public apology, admitting an error in comparing datasets.

“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,” he wrote.

Congress leader Pawan Khera had seized upon the figures before the clarification, arguing that the Election Commission’s numbers implied near-impossible demographic shifts.

“Close to 40% of the electorate died/permanently migrated in Ramtek and Deolali assembly constituencies… Around 45% of the electorate suddenly became eligible to vote in Nashik West and Hingna… Next they will announce that 2+2 = 420,” he posted, sharing a graphic sourced to Lokniti-CSDS.

BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya took to X to hit back strongly, “The apology is in, and Sanjay Kumar is out… In his exuberance to feed Congress’s fake narrative on Maharashtra, CSDS put out data without verification. That is not analysis—it is confirmation bias.”

He accused Kumar and his mentor Yogendra Yadav of a consistent record of wrong projections and “sanctimonious sermons”.

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