BJP Responds To Online Backlash, Rehauls IT Cell

India-West News Desk

NEW DELHI – In a major organizational reshuffle, the Bharatiya Janata Party on August 17 removed its IT cell chief Amit Malviya who has held the position for a decade and announced Deepak Mhaskey, a political organizer from Chhattisgarh, as the new head.

The BJP is crafting its social media unit after it faced major setbacks in the face of student protests that have swept through India and damaged the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose Instagram reels have been widely mocked online. It is a startling moment for the BJP which has retained iron control through other social media channels, paid and unpaid.

INaming four coordinators drawn from four states: Preeti Gandhi (Maharashtra), Shivanand Dwivedi (Delhi), Alok Bhatt (Uttarakhand) and Arun Yadav (Haryana), the party now hopes to have its ear to the ground.

Mhaskey, who has had a stint as a Chemistry professor, has been associated with the Chhattisgarh unit of the BJP for several years.

Malviya expressed hope that the BJP’s social media followers will continue to extend the same “unstinted support” to the party and to his successors in the years ahead. (with IANS)