Lokniti co-director Sanjay Kumar<\/a> in a social media post, which alleged dramatic changes in voter numbers across four Maharashtra Assembly constituencies between the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Kumar later retracted the post and issued a public apology, attributing the error to a data misreading.<\/p>\nThe ICSSR, which functions under the Ministry of Education and funds research in the social sciences, said in a statement that it had taken \u201cserious cognisance” of the incident. It described the episode as \u201cdata manipulation” and said the institute had also published \u201cmedia stories based on biased interpretation” of the Election Commission of India\u2019s Sample Verification (SIR) exercise.<\/p>\n
\u201cICSSR takes serious cognizance of the data manipulation by CSDS and its attempt to create a narrative with the intention of undermining the sanctity of the Election Commission of India. This is a gross violation of the Grant-in-Aid rules of ICSSR, and ICSSR shall issue a Show Cause Notice to the Institute,” the council said in a post on X.<\/p>\n
It added that it held the Indian Constitution \u201cin highest esteem” and described the Election Commission as a \u201chigh constitutional body which has been holding free and fair elections in the largest democracy of world for decades together.”<\/p>\n
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