CSDS poll data row: 3-member inquiry committee to examine research institute

This comes days after controversy erupted as Sanjay Kumar, the co-Director of Lokniti, a research programme at CSDS, cited “data error” to retract a statement about a decrease in the number of registered voters in two Assembly constituencies in Maharashtra — Ramtek and Deolali — between the Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly elections last year. Two FIRs were filed against Kumar in Nagpur and Nashik; however, the Supreme Court has stayed both of them.

As the BJP seized on the issue to allege this disproved the Congress’s allegations of irregularities in elections, ICSSR, a body under the Union Ministry of Education that is one of the main sources of funds for CSDS, sent a show-cause notice to the research institute, asking why grants in aid should not be withdrawn. Among its allegations were: appointments made in violation of UGC guidelines, an opaque method of appointing directors, the lack of elections for the post of chairman of the governing body, and annual accounts not submitted for audit. ICSSR also alleged the Election Commission’s (EC) image had been maligned over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar and the Maharashtra elections.

ICSSR received CSDS’s reply days earlier in which the institute is learnt to have said that its actions, including the appointment of directors, were as per its Memorandum of Association and Rules. However, sources in the government body said that instead of a proper method for selecting the institute’s Director, the Board of Directors at CSDS was internally making the appointment. ICSSR is also learnt to be not satisfied with CSDS’s response to questions about its foreign funding. The enquiry committee will now examine how the research institute functions based on the points flagged in the show-cause notice.

How CSDS is funded

CSDS’s annual report for 2024 shows that its total income in 2023-’24 was Rs. 9.9 crore. Of this, ICSSR gave about Rs. 4.51 crore (46%) — Rs. 3.9 crore for salaries and allowances (about 63% of the total Rs 6.24 crore expenditure) and Rs 60.2 lakh for research schemes or programmes and maintenance — while CSDS earned Rs 4.58 crore from its own sources (projects, fellowships and consultancy).

Foreign contributions listed on the CSDS website are small: in April-June 2025, it received Rs 12.71 lakh; in January-March, it was Rs 11.72 lakh; in October-December 2024, it received Rs 4.39 lakh and Rs 4.38 lakh; and in July-September, it received two tranches of Rs 2.82 lakh and Rs 4.58 lakh.