After CSDS psephologist deletes X post, BJP accuses Congress of making “baseless claims” on voter fraud

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday (August 19, 2025) accused the Congress of making “baseless” claims about ‘vote theft’ and targeting the Election Commission of India in “collusion” with a Delhi-based think tank.

This came after Sanjay Kumar, a psephologist and a professor with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), who had shared voter data from two Maharashtra Assembly seats related to last year’s State election in a post on X on Sunday (August 17, 2025), subsequently deleted his post on Tuesday (August 19, 2025), apologising for posting erroneous data.

The post had claimed a significant decrease in voter numbers in two Assembly seats in the State election compared to the 2024 general election, which was held nearly six months earlier.

‘Fake data’

Reacting sharply, BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia lashed out at Mr. Kumar for posting “false data” which he claimed was used by the Opposition to target the EC, calling it a “dangerous game”.

“This survey organisation [CSDS] is nothing but a puppet at the hands of leaders like Rahul Gandhi who could not win people’s trust. He needs such an organisation which can provide fake data and facts so that he can make baseless allegations,” Mr. Bhatia said. “Congress leader Pawan Khera tweets on this and then deletes. Rahul Gandhi’s baseless allegations are also based on CSDS data,” he added.

Deleting his post on Tuesday (August 19, 2025), Mr. Kumar wrote on X, “I sincerely apologise for the tweets posted regarding Maharashtra elections. An error occurred while comparing the data of 2024 LS and 2024 AS. The data in the row was misread by our Data team.” The erroneous tweet has since been removed, he said, adding, “I had no intention of dispersing any form of misinformation.”