The Congress party’s ‘vote chori’ campaign, spearheaded by Rahul Gandhi, has been a central talking point in recent months. Gandhi has repeatedly alleged that large-scale irregularities marred the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, claiming that voter rolls were inflated and manipulated to benefit the ruling party.
However, the debate took a dramatic turn when Sanjay Kumar, co-director of Lokniti at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), publicly retracted a data analysis that appeared to support claims of unusual voter anomalies in four Maharashtra constituencies. Kumar admitted that his earlier social media posts, citing drastic jumps and drops in voter numbers, were based on a misreading of official data.
On August 19, he issued an apology on X (formerly Twitter), writing: “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.”
Kumar’s now-deleted posts had painted a startling picture of voter roll fluctuations in four Assembly segments:
- Nashik West: Claimed an increase of 1.55 lakh voters, a 47.38 percent rise between the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections.
- Hingna: Alleged addition of 1.36 lakh voters, a 43.08 percent rise.
- Ramtek: Suggested a decline of 1.80 lakh voters, nearly 40 percent drop.
- Devlali: Reported fall of 1.68 lakh voters, about 37 percent decline.
According to the analysis of ECI data:
Maharashtra had 9.23 crore registered voters on March 30, 2024, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. By October 15, 2024, ahead of the Assembly polls, this figure had risen to 9.63 crore, an increase of about 40 lakh voters.
This overall growth reflects normal additions due to new voters turning 18 and revisions, alongside deletions for deceased or migrated individuals. The scale of fluctuation in Kumar’s posts was thus a result of misinterpretation rather than an actual anomaly.
Notably, on August 20, the Nagpur Rural Police registered a First Information Report (FIR) at Ramtek Police Station against Sanjay Kumar. Police officials said the charges reflect the seriousness of spreading potentially misleading information during an election-sensitive period, as such claims can erode public trust in the electoral process.
A day before the FIR was lodged, Kumar had issued a public apology on X (formerly Twitter). In his statement, he admitted that the discrepancy was due to a “misreading by the data team”, expressed regret over the mistake, and confirmed that the misleading posts had been removed.
Apart from Ramtek, similar FIRs have also been registered in Nashik, based on complaints filed by the local district election officer. These cases cite multiple constituencies, including Devlali and Ramtek, as being directly impacted by the figures Kumar shared.
Nonetheless, the Opposition, including senior Congress leaders, used his data in public statements and social media posts to allege large-scale irregularities in Maharashtra’s voter rolls.
Rahul Gandhi’s much-hyped ‘Vote Chori’ campaign, launched in early August, has only exposed his obsession with creating a narrative of victimhood rather than presenting facts. Gandhi tried to allege large-scale irregularities in voter rolls, first by pointing to alleged fake voters in Bengaluru, and then indirectly leaning on the now-discredited Maharashtra data put out by psephologist Sanjay Kumar. His larger storyline was that India’s democracy is “under threat” and that elections are being “rigged” in favour of the BJP.
But just as in the past, when Rahul Gandhi invoked names, data, or half-baked claims, the truth caught up with him quickly. Gandhi may not have quoted the numbers himself, but his party gleefully weaponised them, until they were forced to quietly delete posts when the facts crumbled.
BJP leaders have wasted no time in pointing out how Congress’s propaganda machine operates. Amit Malviya, head of the BJP IT cell, tore into Gandhi, saying: “The very institution whose data Gandhi leaned on to defame the voters of Maharashtra has now admitted that its figures were wrong. Where does this leave Gandhi and the Congress, which brazenly targeted the Election Commission and branded genuine voters as fake? Shameful.”
Malviya further accused Gandhi of peddling a “fake narrative” against the Election Commission, built not on facts but on confirmation bias, the habit of cherry-picking anything that suits his agenda, regardless of accuracy.
This is not the first time Gandhi’s propaganda has collapsed under its own weight. Time and again, his speeches and campaigns, whether on Rafale, Pegasus, Adani, or now ‘Vote Chori’, have been riddled with exaggerations and distortions. Each time, when the dust settles, it is clear that Gandhi has relied on unverified claims or misleading “research” to malign institutions and spread distrust among voters.
While Gandhi pretends to distance himself from the Maharashtra fiasco, it was Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera who used Sanjay Kumar’s faulty data in two posts on X to attack the Election Commission. Both posts were deleted after the psephologist’s retraction, but not before BJP leaders highlighted how the Opposition was building its campaign on lies.
Even government institutions have taken note. The Bihar CEO shared Kumar’s apology with screenshots of the deleted data, making it clear that the misleading figures had been cited by multiple Congress leaders. Reports also suggest that the ICSSR is considering action against CSDS for spreading false and misleading information.
If Gandhi truly cared about India’s democratic integrity, he would have apologised to the people for amplifying baseless data. Instead, he continues to tour Bihar on his ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’, peddling the same conspiracy theories, ignoring the fact that the foundation of his campaign has already been proven false.
