‘Lokniti’ against the nation

The political circle fell into complete silence when the Central Election Commission issued a notice to Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, for his allegations pertaining to Maharashtra assembly elections. The commission through this notice asked Rahul Gandhi to file an affidavit regarding these allegations or apologize to the country.

When the Commission sent such a notice to Rahul Gandhi, who doubts a constitutional institute like Election Commission and the honesty of all government employees without giving any solid evidence, it naturally caused a stir among people from various sections, who vehemently oppose BJP and Narendra Modi.

Rahul Gandhi has been continuously accusing the Election Commission over Maharashtra assembly polls for the last 6-7 months. He accused the Election Commission of ‘vote theft’ by holding a press conference in Delhi recently. He alleged that 1 crore voters have increased in Maharashtra within 6 months from the Lok Sabha elections. The actual number of voters increased is only 40 lakh.

Rahul Gandhi alleged that voters from other states were registered in Maharashtra by BJP in collaboration with the Election Commission and they went on to win the assembly elections with the help of this increased number of voters. In case a person not belonging to the constituency objects to changes in the voter list, it is mandatory for him to file an affidavit before the Election Commission. Based on this rule itself the Election commission demanded Rahul Gandhi to either file an affidavit or apologize to the entire country for the false allegations.

It’s been 5 days since the Election Commission sent this notice. Rahul Gandhi had not filed an affidavit nor had he apologized till the time of writing this article. Meanwhile, Sanjay Kumar, co-founder of CSDS-Lokniti, a research organization that predicts election results, retracted his tweet regarding the Maharashtra elections and apologized to the Election Commission. It is extremely important to understand the connection between this apology and the notice sent to Rahul Gandhi. Understanding this connection can help reveal the conspiracy behind these rampant allegations against the Election Commission and Bharatiya Janata Party.

A lot of organizations have come up in the country in the last 35 – 40 years which are in the business of predicting the election results. Psephology is a method of finding out trends in voting by interacting with the voters and predicting the likely winner based on that. This methodology is now well developed not only in the country but in the entire world. 1 to 2 percent of the total voters are interviewed during this survey. This is called a sample survey. Based on this, predictions are made about which party will win the majority in the election.

In the last few years, post poll surveys are also being carried out along with the pre poll surveys. Predictions of these Exit Polls are based on the interactions held with selected voters after they cast their votes. CSDS-Lokniti is an organization that predicts such results. Few days back, Sanjay Kumar had claimed that compared to the Lok Sabha elections the number of voters in Ramtek and Deolali assembly constituencies had decreased by 38.45 percent and 36.82 percent respectively.

“We drew the wrong conclusions from the Election Commission’s data, I sincerely apologize for this mistake,” tweeted Sanjay Kumar. It was on the basis of this analysis of voting figures done by Sanjay Kumar, that Congress leaders like Pawan Khera were accusing the Election Commission of vote theft. The Prince in his press conference in Delhi had said that he was presenting the statistics of the Election Commission itself on a big screen using modern technology. When Sanjay Kumar tweeted about the decrease in voters in Ramtek and Deolali, Congress immediately hurled accusations against the Election Commission once again.

Sanjay Kumar, who retracted his tweet and issued an apology, was asked in a television interview about the allegations being made by the Congress based on his information. Sanjay Kumar while answering this said that our conclusions were wrong and therefore we are apologizing. If Congress is accusing the Election Commission based on our findings, then Congress should also apologize.

It is not a mere coincidence that Sanjay Kumar apologized after Election Commission’s final ultimatum to Rahul Gandhi to prove his allegations or apologize to the country. Even Congress won’t believe Sanjay Kumar, when he says that he is not aware that the accusations made by Congress are based on his information.

Now the question remains, what exactly do people like Rahul Gandhi and Sanjay Kumar want to achieve? Rahul Gandhi’s language and overall body language clearly shows that his aim is to create distrust in a constitutional institution like the Election Commission. The Election Commission has deleted the names of around 65 lakh voters after verifying their identity proofs in Bihar. The Election Commission has made it clear time and again that deleting the name of infiltrators in the voting list is the purpose of this verification.

Rahul Gandhi has taken out a march in Bihar along with Tejashwi Yadav against the verification of voter lists. Rahul Gandhi is raising the issue of voter lists in Maharashtra during this march as well. It is justifiable to question the Election Commission for errors in the voter lists.

However, Rahul Gandhi’s real intention is to create distrust towards constitutional institutions, government machinery and government employees in the minds of people by accusing an institution like the Election Commission of vote theft based on these errors. Creating anarchy through this is Rahul Gandhi’s hidden agenda. This is a conspiracy to deliberately destabilize the country while vehemently opposing the government.

 

(Article Pre-Published in Times of India Online – 25 August, 2025) 

Keshav Upadhye, Chief Spokesperson