New Delhi: According to news reports, Cambridge Analytica of UK, which offers data solutions for political parties, had pitched a proposal last year to the Congress party, which included “data mining of Facebook posts and tweets” and “influencing voter intention” for the 2019 national election. News agencies exclusively accessed the proposal that promised a “data-driven campaign” with an estimated cost of around Rs. 2.5 crores.

Congress party sources say that the meeting did not take place, but the party was not a signatory to the deal with the company.

“Just being the recipient of a commercial proposal does not automatically imply a contractual engagement between the party and the vendor,” says Praveen Chakravarthy, who heads the Congress’s data analytics department.

The agencies were able to access the proposal Cambridge Analytica made to the Congress in October-November last year. The 50-page proposal, dating back to August 2017, is titled “Data-Driven Campaign | The Path to the 2019 Lok Sabha”.

According to the sources, it was Cambridge Analytica’s CEO Alexander Nix, now under suspension, who pitched the proposal to the Congress party of India. He reportedly met with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was then on the post of vice president for the party, and former union ministers Jairam Ramesh and P Chidambaram.

The plan was tentatively valued at USD 389,460 or approximately Rs. 2.5 crore. The services that the company offered included “Data mining of Facebook posts and Tweets”, “extracting groundbreaking insights and shift balance in your favour”, “influencing voter intention, to take specific actions”.

Rahul Gandhi became Congress president two months after that.

The meetings didn’t yield anything of importance, the sources added.

Sources told News Agencies that the Congress party rejected the proposal because Cambridge Analytica was considered “right wing” and the party suspected that the company was trying to infiltrate the Congress.

When sought a response from the Congress on Alexander Nix’s meetings with Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh, and P Chidambaram but received no response from their offices.

A response was given by the party’s data analytics head Praveen Chakravarthy. “The Congress party has not engaged Cambridge Analytica or any of its subsidiaries for any election campaigns. This has been reiterated multiple times in the past,” he said.

“There is simply no need for the Congress party to obfuscate on this matter. It is plain and simple – the party has not worked with the said firm. As regards receiving proposals, the Congress party, by its standing as a strong national party, receives many proposals from many firms regularly, pitching their services,” said Mr Chakravarthy.

The UK-based company Cambridge Analytica has been accused of mining data of millions of Facebook users to manipulate elections in countries including India.

The BJP has put up the allegation that the Congress was using the company’s services and has demanded Rahul Gandhi to “apologise”. A whistleblower indicated that it was not just the Congress party involved, but many other parties also used its services.

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