"Attempt To Create Narrative": Big Action Against Psephologist's Institute

A day after psephologist Sanjay Kumar apologised for an error in flagging significant voter additions and deletions in the Maharashtra election, a government-run research body has said it will issue a show-cause notice to the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), where Mr Kumar is a faculty member.

The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) has said in a post on X that it has taken serious cognizance of data manipulation by CSDS and "its attempt to create a narrative with the intention of undermining the sanctity of the Election Commission of India".

The ICSSR is an autonomous body under the Union Ministry of Education and CSDS receives funding from the government-run research body. 

In a post on X, the research body has written, "It has come to the notice of ICSSR that an individual holding (a) responsible position at CSDS, an ICSSR-funded research institute, has made media statements that had to be retracted subsequently citing glitches in data analysis regarding elections in Maharashtra. Further, the institute has published media stories based on biased interpretation of the SIR exercise by the Election Commission of India."

It has come to the notice of ICSSR that an individual holding responsible position at CSDS, an ICSSR-funded research institute, has made media statements that had to be retracted subsequently citing glitches in data analysis regarding elections in Maharashtra.

Futher, the…

— Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) (@icssr) August 19, 2025

"ICSSR holds the Indian Constitution in (the) highest esteem. Election Commission of India is a high constitutional body which has been holding free and fair elections in the largest democracy of world for decades together," the post says.

"ICSSR takes serious cognizance of the data manipulation by CSDS and its attempt to create a narrative with the intention of undermining the sanctity of the Election Commission of India. This is a gross violation of the Grant-in-Aid rules of ICSSR, and ICSSR shall issue a Show Cause Notice to the Institute," the research body has said.

The psephologist had earlier claimed that the number of voters in Maharashtra's Nashik West and Hingna Assembly segments rose by 47 per cent and 43 per cent, respectively, between the Lok Sabha election last and the Maharashtra polls earlier this year. He also claimed that the number of voters sharply fell in Ramtek and Devlali constituencies by 38 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively.

The claims prompted the Congress to step up its 'vote fraud' offensive against the BJP and top party leaders shared Mr Kumar's findings in an attempt to corner the ruling party and the Election Commission, which the Congress has accused of colluding with the BJP.

Then, in a surprise development, Sanjay Kumar deleted his tweets and issued an apology. "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.

The BJP then hit back and accused the research body of putting out unverified data to feed the Congress's "fake narrative".

Senior BJP leader and the party's IT head, Amit Malviya, said the institution Leader of the Opposition, Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi relied on to make his allegations has now admitted that its figures were wrong. "Where does this leave Rahul Gandhi and the Congress, which brazenly targeted the Election Commission and went so far as to brand genuine voters as fake? Shameful," Mr Malviya said, demanding an apology from the Congress leader.

The Congress stuck to its guns. Party spokesperson Sujata Paul told NDTV that the CSDS is just one of the sources the Congress sourced its data from. "As far as we are concerned, we might have taken up this data, but we have also corroborated it with evidence that we have got from our sources, our workers, and the entire opposition that was fighting the elections together in Maharashtra," she said.

"The CSDS data was just used as additional evidence. And why he (Sanjay Kumar) apologised, that is his problem, not ours," she added.

Sanjay Kumar is professor and co-director of Lokniti, a research programme at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.