BJP slams Delhi-based think tank CSDS for 'false data', says Congress using it to allege 'vote theft'

New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday accused Congress of making “baseless” claims about ‘vote theft’ and targeting the Election Commission in collusion with a Delhi-based think tank, which it claimed gets foreign funding to interfere with elections in the country through political parties working “against national interest”.

This came after Sanjay Kumar, a psephologist and a professor with the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), shared voter data of two assembly seats in Maharashtra relating to last year’s state elections in a post on X on Sunday and deleted it on Tuesday, apologising for posting erroneous data on the microblogging platform.

The post had claimed a significant decrease in voter numbers in two assembly seats in state polls compared to the 2024 general elections, which were held nearly six months apart.

Reacting sharply, BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia lashed out at Kumar for posting “false data” on X which he claimed was used by the opposition to target the EC, and called 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,” Bhatia charged.

He further alleged, “It gets foreign funding to interfere in elections in India through those parties which work against national interest, raise questions on our Army.” The “lie” that Kumar posted on X remained there for 40 hours and kept spreading “rumours”, he charged.

“Congress leader Pawan Khera tweets on this and then deletes. Rahul Gandhi’s baseless allegations are also based on CSDS data,” Bhatia charged.

“It's a criminal negligence... Who will take its responsibility? Will Rahul Gandhi apologise to the country?” Deleting his post on Tuesday, Kumar wrote on X, “I sincerely apologise 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, he said, adding, “I had no intention of dispersing any form of misinformation.”