Not us, but BJP used Cambridge Analytica: Congress

Congress on Wednesday rejected BJP's allegations of hiring the services of data mining firm Cambridge Analytica which is at the centre of a controversy over data theft.

Stung by Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad's allegations, Congress hit back at the BJP saying the ruling party and its alliance partner JD(U) had utilised the services of Cambridge Analytica during the 2010 Bihar assembly elections

"Fake Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad is presenting fake agenda. The truth is contrary to this. The BJP and JDU used Cambridge Analytica," Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala told a press conference here.

Earlier, Prasad cited media reports to allege that Congress had links with Cambridge Analytica.

"Desperate times call for desperate press conferences. BJP's factory of fake news has produced another fake news today. Such baseless allegations show, everyday character of the party," Surjewala said.

The Congress leader claimed that the BJP had hired the Indian business partner of Cambridge Analytica OBI during Delhi Assembly election. Besides, the OBI was also involved in the BJP's Mission 272+ as an additional support in Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Delhi.

"We checked the profile of Himanshu Sharma, vice-president of OBI on LinkedIn. He mentioned there that the company handled four election campaigns of ruling BJP." Surjewala alleged.

Surjewala also circulated the LinkedIn profile of Sharma that mentioned the achievements of OBI. "Managed four election campaigns successfully for the ruling party-BJP achieve its target of 272+ by managing Cell Centre Management Project Profiling of each and every volunteer/supporter who had extended his support to get involved in our Mission 272+, and confidentially maintaining the database provided to BJP candidate as an additional support for national elections and state elections of Haryana, Jharkhand and Delhi," the profile on social networking website LinkedIn said.

Cambridge Analytica is the eye of a storm after reports emerged that the firm accessed millions of Facebook users' personal data, which was used to identify the personalities of American voters and influence their behaviour to help President Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election.