Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has targeted Congress for using services of the data mining company Cambridge Analytica during the Gujarat assembly elections in December 2017. He said the party was lying about its connection with the company.

To support his claims, Prasad cited three newspaper reports which termed the company as ‘Congress party’s brahmastra’ in the elections against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“There are many suspicious signs available that show that they (Congress) used and misused the services of the company. Congress was involved with Cambridge Analytica in the Gujarat elections,” said Prasad.

Cambridge Analytica is a data mining company which is in the headlines recently for alleged data theft from Facebook. It was revealed that the company could access personal information about Facebook users and allegedly used the data to influence them during the US presidential elections in favour of Donald Trump.

A report claims that Alexander Nix, CEO of the company, is in contact with opposition parties in India to design an electoral plan for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

On Wednesday, Prasad had attacked Rahul Gandhi and Congress for their links with the company which was denied by the party.