BJP has an ambitious target

In mid-2023, economist Das paper Sabyasachi released "Democratic Backsliding in the World's Largest Democracy". This looked for signs of manipulation in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The paper had not been peer-reviewed. It triggered a firestorm, which forced Mr Das' resignation from his post at Ashoka University. The incident has dire implications for academic freedom but that's a subject for another day.

- DEVANGSHU DATTA

Mr Das used statistical methods to examine voting patterns in 59 Lok Sabha constituencies, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won or came second, in close contests defined as a margin of less than 5 per cent of the votes cast. It also looked at voter suppression, with a focus on the removal of Muslim names from electoral rolls.

It marked off constituencies in states controlled by the BJP, and looked at the possibility that state civil service officers (SCS) tasked with election duties may have been "pliable". The paper also looked at between discrepancies turnouts and votes cast in the initial data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI). The ECI later released corrected figures. It's still an open question if the discrepancies were due to manipulation or statistical error.