Apology by psephologist on Maha polls exposes entire ecosystem, says K'taka BJP chief

Bengaluru, Aug 20 (IANS) The Karnataka BJP has stated that the apology by psephologist Sanjay Kumar for his social media posts on Maharashtra elections is much more than a singular error from his organisation and exposes an entire ecosystem.

Responding to the apology, BJP state President and MLA B.Y. Vijayendra, said on social media X on Wednesday, “The recent “apology” by psephologist Sanjay Kumar is much more than a singular error from his organisation, the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). It exposes an entire ecosystem that refuses to accept the people’s verdict. After experiencing a decade of good governance, the people of Bharat gave a historic third mandate to Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji, placing faith in his vision to lead the nation forward.”

“Unable to reconcile with this reality, they peddled fabricated data to suggest that the elections were “stolen”. In doing so, they attacked the credibility of the Election Commission of India (ECI), an institution with an unmatched 75-year record of conducting free and fair polls across the length and breadth of our country,” Vijayendra stated, targeting the opposition parties.

“Such attempts are not just misleading but dangerous. An investigation must be carried out to expose others who have deliberately run this smear campaign. And if the Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party have any shred of responsibility left, they too must apologise for deliberately trying to erode the trust of the people in one of India’s most respected institutions,” he demanded.

Sanjay Kumar had stated, “I sincerely apologise for the tweets posted regarding Maharashtra elections. Error occurred while comparing data of 2024 Lok Sabha elections and 2024 assembly elections. The data in row was misread by our own data team. The tweet has since been removed. I had no intention of dispersing any form of misinformation.”

It can be recalled that two days after highlighting large-scale voter additions and deletions in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, psephologist Sanjay Kumar of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) issued an apology and deleted his posts, setting off a major political row.

The BJP accused CSDS of releasing unverified data to bolster what it called the Congress’s “false narrative”. The Opposition, however, countered that while it cited CSDS data, its claims were also backed by evidence it had independently gathered.

–IANS

MKA/DPB