BJP slams Cong after expert's apology on Maharashtra voters row

A psephologist post, which created a huge political drama on vote theft, has been deleted by him. Psephologist Sanjay Kumar of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) has apologised for the "error", which was related significant voter additions and deletions in the Maharashtra Assembly election. "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," he said in a post on X.

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.

— Sanjay Kumar (@sanjaycsds) August 19, 2025

On August 17, Sanjay Kumar took to X, citing data that claimed voter numbers in Nashik West had risen from 328,053 in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to 483,459 in the Assembly elections, which was a 47.38% increase. In Hingna, he claimed the numbers had grown from 314,605 to 450,414, a 43.08% increase. The claims provided fresh ammo to Congress in its 'vote fraud' offensive against the BJP and were shared by its top leaders in an attempt to corner the ruling party. "The CSDS data was just used as additional evidence. And why he (Sanjay Kumar) apologised, that is his problem, not ours," Spokesperson Sujata Paul said. BJP leader and spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia alleged,'For 40 hours, lies were floated to weaken our democracy and raise baseless questions on the Election Commission. Who will take responsibility for this? Will Rahul Gandhi apologise to the nation?'

#WATCH | On Congress claiming discrepancies in Maharashtra voters' data, BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia says, " For 40 hours, lies were floated to weaken our democracy and raise baseless questions on the Election Commission. Who will take responsibility for this? Will Rahul Gandhi… pic.twitter.com/11OxTK62Vm

— ANI (@ANI) August 19, 2025

The BJP has accused the research body of putting out unverified data to feed the Congress's "fake narrative". The main Opposition has responded that it used CSDS data, but also corroborated its findings based on evidence collected separately. The BJP seized on Kumar's error, accusing him of bias and attempting to undermine the ECI's credibility. 

The very institution whose data Rahul Gandhi leaned on to defame the voters of Maharashtra has now admitted that its figures were wrong — not just on Maharashtra, but even on SIR.

Where does this leave Rahul Gandhi and the Congress, which brazenly targeted the Election… pic.twitter.com/4o99YDvsMx

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) August 19, 2025

Sharing the screenshot of Sanjay Kumar's old and new posts, Shanthi Kumar, BJP Telangana state treasurer, called it an attempt to spread "fake news".