Pollster Apology Has Rahul In Fix

New Delhi:Slamming the Opposition parties for their ‘vote chori’ allegation, the BJP on Tuesday demanded an impartial inquiry into the "fake" survey data of last year’s Maharashtra polls posted by a Delhi-based think tank and quoted by Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi.

The BJP accused the Congress and the LoP of making "baseless” vote theft claims after a senior member of the think tank retracted the "erroneous" Maharashtra poll and apologised.

The BJP said both Gandhi and the think tank, CSDS, are part of the "dangerous game of narrative building" against India and working "against national interest".

The ruling party's attack came after psephologist Sanjay Kumar of the CSDS on Tuesday apologised and deleted his Sunday's post that had significantly decreased voter numbers in some of the seats in the Maharashtra state polls compared to the 2024 general elections, which were held nearly six months apart.

The BJP said Gandhi had quoted the CSDS to launch his allegation against the EC and his propaganda campaign against the election body and the BJP and harmed the dignity of the constitutional institution.

"This is a fact that data was given by CSDS, and based on that data, Gandhi had made allegations against the Election Commission… He had also accused us (the BJP)… Today, CSDS has accepted that their data was wrong and they have apologised for their mistake... Now will Mr Gandhi also apologise," Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said in Mumbai, calling Gandhi a serial liar.

The BJP also quoted three different figures furnished by Gandhi, including on the floor of Parliament, referring to an alleged increase of voters in Maharashtra between the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and last year's Assembly elections.

The BJP said Mr Gandhi tried to set a narrative by furnishing lies, as he has been given a "guru mantra" by Geroge Soros to do so as a means to come to power.

The saffron party also claimed that CSDS gets foreign funding from agencies which "inject money into institutions that can fracture society from within, especially along caste and community lines."

Accusing the Congress of stage-managing the vote theft claims, BJP president J.P. Nadda posted a video clipping of a woman who had recently interacted with I.N.D.I.A. bloc leaders, including Gandhi in Bihar, and claimed her family members' names were not included in the voter list after the SIR. She later claimed that she was asked to make such a statement before the leaders and she and her family have their names in the revised voter list.

Nadda also took a dig at Gandhi, posting on X in Hindi: "Khada hoon aaj bhi wahin…jahan mera jhooth pakdaya, sach saamne aaya aur maine apna majak banwaya…khada hoon aaj bhi wahin."

BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said the Congress leader is running a "jhooth ka showroom" to hurl baseless allegations against the constitutional bodies. The party also cited how the Bombay high court and the Supreme Court have dismissed petitions on bogus voting claims in Maharashtra, citing farcical claims.

"Whenever such issues go to court, the petitions are dismissed, whether in the Supreme Court or the Bombay high court. Making baseless allegations against constitutional institutions and calling the Election Commission a ‘vote-theft commission’ is unacceptable. The biggest dacoits and dynastic thieves are those out on bail in corruption cases," said Mr Bhatia.

Taking on Mr Gandhi for making a "mockery of democracy", Union minister Pralhad Joshi said, "If 'saving democracy' means baselessly attacking the EC, then this fiasco exposes the real culprit. The Congress’s campaign is less about protecting democracy and more about misinformation. There must be an impartial enquiry into how this flawed data was promoted in the first place. Why was verification skipped? Accountability starts at home..."