‘Manipulated’ Maha poll data: ICSSR to issue show-cause notice to CSDS

New Delhi: The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) will issue a show-cause notice to the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) for allegedly violating its grant-in-aid rules by releasing "manipulated" election data, officials said.

The council said it takes serious cognisance of the alleged data manipulation by the CSDS and its attempt to create a narrative to undermine the sanctity of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

The decision follows recent social media posts by the CSDS that have sparked controversy.

Sanjay Kumar, a psephologist and professor at the think-tank, shared voter data for two Maharashtra assembly seats from last year’s state elections on X on Sunday. He deleted the post on Tuesday and later apologised for posting "erroneous data" on the platform.

The ICSSR, the government’s apex body for social and human sciences research, provides support to the CSDS.

"It has come to the notice of ICSSR that an individual holding a responsible position at CSDS, an ICSSR-funded research institute, has made media statements that had to be retracted subsequently, citing glitches in data analysis regarding elections in Maharashtra," the ICSSR said in a statement.

"Further, the institute has published media stories based on a biased interpretation of the SIR exercise by the Election Commission of India. ICSSR holds the Indian Constitution in the highest esteem. Election Commission of India is a high constitutional body which has been holding free and fair elections in the largest democracy of the world for decades together," it added.

Terming it a gross violation of the Grant-in-Aid rules of the ICSSR, the council said that it would issue a show-cause notice.

In his post, Sanjay Kumar 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.

While the original post was deleted, Kumar had taken to X to post an apology, saying, " I sincerely apologise for the tweets posted regarding Maharashtra elections. Error occurred while comparing the 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".

The issue also led to a war of words between the BJP and the Congress, with the former accusing the latter of making "baseless" claims about 'vote theft' and targeting the EC in collusion with CSDS.

The BJP also alleged that the CSDS was getting foreign funding to interfere with elections in the country through political parties working "against national interest". PTI