In Nashik, Maharashtra, a case has been filed against well-known psephologist Sanjay Kumar for allegedly spreading false information about the 2024 Lok Sabha and state elections. The district electoral officer (DEO) of Nashik filed the case against Kumar, saying he gave out “wrong data” on the Devlali assembly sector.
The DEO used X (previously Twitter) to say, “It is requested to all citizens to verify the info only from [the] Election Commission of India website.” Even if the exact allegations against Kumar weren’t made public right away, this action is a direct result of a recent scandal caused by a social media post he later removed.
Sanjay Kumar, a professor at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), has already said sorry for a post that falsely said that the number of voters in two assembly seats, Ramtek and Devlali, had dropped significantly when compared statistics from the Lok Sabha and state elections. He said that the mistake was caused by the data team “misreading a row.” He said, “I didn’t want to spread any false information.”
The argument has swiftly turned into a political issue. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) used Kumar’s reversal to criticize the Congress party and its leader, Rahul Gandhi, in particular. Amit Malviya, head of the BJP IT cell, said that Kumar had misrepresented forecasts to help the Congress. He called the mistake “confirmation bias.” Other leaders of the BJP have said that Congress utilized this bad data to back up its claims of election fraud against the party and the Election Commission (EC).
But the Congress has denied these assertions. The party has said that Rahul Gandhi’s claims of election fraud were based on information from the Election Commission itself, not just Kumar’s tweet. The EC then invited Rahul Gandhi to provide them his analysis and proof under oath. Gandhi has said that he doesn’t need to do that because he is already a Member of Parliament and has sworn to uphold the Constitution. He also said that the data he gave came from the EC’s own numbers.
The Nashik DEO’s lawsuit adds a fresh angle to the ongoing political discussion about the fairness of the voting process and the use of data analysis in public debate. People will be watching this case closely because it might set a precedent for holding researchers and public personalities responsible for material they disclose on social media, even if they later take it back.