'Ghuspaithiya Bachao Yatra': BJP targets Rahul's 'Voter Adhikar Yatra'; seeks apology after Psephologist deletes Maharashtra elections data

NEW DELHI: BJP on Tuesday lashed out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his "vote theft" allegations, after psephologist Sanjay Kumar admitted to sharing incorrect voter data related to the Maharashtra elections.BJP accused the leader of opposition of relying on "false and unverified figures" targeting the Election Commission and labelling "genuine voters as fake."BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya said Rahul had leaned on Lokniti-CSDS data, which has now admitted to errors not just in Maharashtra but also in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR)."The very institution whose data Rahul Gandhi leaned on to defame the voters of Maharashtra has now admitted that its figures were wrong -- not just on Maharashtra, but even on SIR," Malviya wrote on X.Questioning the Congress MP, Malviya added, "Where does this leave Rahul Gandhi and the Congress, which brazenly targeted the Election Commission and went so far as to brand genuine voters as fake? Shameful."He also dubbed Rahul's ongoing ‘Voter Adhikar Yatra’ in Bihar as the “Ghuspaithiya Bachao Yatra” (Save the Infiltrator Yatra), and demanded an unconditional apology."Rahul Gandhi must immediately abandon his "Ghuspaithiya Bachao Yatra" (Save the Infiltrator Yatra) in Bihar and tender an unconditional apology to the people of India for his callous and regressive politics," the BJP leader posted on X.These remarks came after Sanjay Kumar, a psephologist affiliated with Lokniti-CSDS, issued a public apology, saying a data misread by his team had led to misleading claims about voter numbers in two constituencies. "I sincerely apologise for the tweets posted regarding Maharashtra elections. 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," he posted.The clarification, however, did little to pacify the BJP. Malviya, earlier mocked Kumar’s record as a psephologist, alleging that his predictions have consistently been wrong and he thinks, "TV audiences are fools."Earlier in the day, Malviya posted, "The apology is in, and Sanjay Kumar is out. Incidentally, when was the last time this protégé of Yogendra Yadav ever got anything right? In all his projections in the run-up to every single election, the BJP is supposedly losing—and when the reverse happens, he turns up on TV justifying how the BJP won. Convenient. He must think TV audiences are fools."In his now-deleted post on the Maharashtra elections, psephologist Sanjay Kumar claimed a sharp drop in voter numbers between the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.He said that in Ramtek constituency, voters fell from 4,66,203 in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to 2,86,931 in the Assembly polls — a “38.45% decrease.” In Devlali, he claimed voters declined from 4,56,072 to 2,88,141 — a “36.82% decrease.”Meanwhile, on Monday, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition alleging irregularities in the Maharashtra Assembly elections held in November 2024.