Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been making dramatic accusations after accusations of voter fraud and “vote theft/vote chori” against the Election Commission of India (ECI). All those claims fell apart within a few hours as multiple claims he presented were challenged by verified information and on-ground investigations.
In such a situation, Lokniti-CSDS Co-director Sanjay Kumar has apologised after posting erroneous data regarding the Maharashtra Lok Sabha and Assembly elections on social media, two days after his tweets sparked controversy.
On 17 August 2025, Sanjay Kumar posted explosive figures suggesting a 38% drop in voters in Maharashtra’s Ramtek and Devlali constituencies between the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
- Ramtek (AC 59): Alleged decrease of 1,79,272 voters (-38.45%)
- Devlali (AC 126): Alleged decrease of 1,67,931 voters (-36.82%)
The tweets drew attention as opposition parties, particularly the I.N.D.I. Alliance, have been alleging large-scale voter discrepancies in Maharashtra. Social media users accused Kumar of furthering these claims with unverified numbers.
Following fact-checks that disproved the figures, Kumar deleted the posts and issued an apology on 19 August 2025. In a statement on his X handle, he wrote: “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.”
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
Critics online alleged that the episode was part of a larger attempt to undermine the Election Commission by circulating unverified data. Some pointed to Kumar’s past election analyses, accusing him of bias against the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The apology is in, and Sanjay Kumar is out. Incidentally, when was the last time this protégé of Yogendra Yadav ever got anything right? In all his projections in the run-up to every single election, the BJP is supposedly losing—and when the reverse happens, he turns up on TV… https://t.co/QXJvUi6d3B
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) August 19, 2025
Kumar has been associated with Lokniti-CSDS for several years and is considered close to psephologist Yogendra Yadav.
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