Read Also | Congress, BJP trade charges over links with disgraced firm Cambridge Analytica

NEW DELHI: Which political party or parties in India were in touch with disgraced political 'consultant' Cambridge Analytica (CA)? That's the million-dollar - or Rs 10 crore - question on everyone's lips.The BJP ’s Ravi Shankar Prasad says “ Congress has links with Cambridge Analytica ”. He has accused the Congress party of committing data theft, manipulating data to fight elections and questioned the role of CA in the social media management of Congress and party president Rahul Gandhi. "Will the Congress Party now depend upon data manipulation and data theft to win elections?” he asked in a press conference.His comments followed several media reports alleging that the big data firm at the centre of a data scandal engulfing Facebook was also being deployed by Rahul Gandhi as a 'Brahmastra against Modi' for election management, social media and for creating more buzz for the Congress party.There are also unverified reports that Gandhi met the suspended Global CEO of CA to work on UPA strategy.The Congress party’s Manish Tewari tweeted earlier today saying the Election Commission “should enquire/recommend (an) investigation (into) what services & to whom they were offering” these services in India.The veracity of these allegations is yet to to be independently verified in the absence of adequate information in the public domain.The true picture of the company's India operations remains opaque because CA, its parent company and other affiliates all are intertwined in a complex web.That CA, a British firm – which reportedly used 50 million Facebook users’ data without their permission - worked with an Indian party, or parties, for the Bihar Assembly election in 2010 is confirmed by the company itself on its own website.Curiously, CA’s parent firm is Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL). When we looked online for SCL’s India links, we didn’t find any direct overt web presence. However, a company called Ovleno Business Intelligence (OBI), on its website, claims that it is part of a joint venture called SCL India. It claims this is a venture between itself and the SCL Group, London.OBI proclaims on its website that it works on “ political campaign management”. Its lists as its clients the BJP, the Congress, the JD (U), ICICI Bank, and Airtel. None of these claims by the company have been verified. BJP sources say 'everyone wants to take credit for the world's most successful campaign. Ten thousand companies claim they worked with us but they never did.'CA, whose web site does say it worked in India, doesn’t say which party hired it, but one clue is that it says it was gauging "electoral apathy" in the state, which was a result of "the poor and unchanging condition of the state after 15 years of incumbent rule".Either as part of the unbroken Janata Dal or as part of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, one man ruled Bihar for 15 years - 1990-2005 - either himself or through his wife – Lalu Prasad.Then in 2005, the JD (U) wrested power away from Lalu’s party and ruled from 2005-2010.Cambridge Analytica was hired by a political party in 2010. After the 2010 Assembly elections, the JD (U) again won.Britain’s Channel 4 TV network also says CA ‘consulted' with someone during elections in India. Channel 4 broke the story about CA allegedly using Facebook users’ data to influence the November 2016 US election.The TV channel’s investigation also says that CA “executives boasted (to its reporters) that Cambridge Analytica and its parent company Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL) had worked in more than two hundred elections across the world, including Nigeria, Kenya, the Czech Republic, India and Argentina.”SCL’s India unit, SCL India, which as mentioned previously is a venture between SCL Group and OBI, according to OBI, has on its web site a page that lists OBI’s ‘political campaign management’ work.On that page are pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, although under its client list – which it misspells “Our Client’s” instead of “Our Clients” – it doesn’t mention AAP.While there is lot of chatter on OBI working for JD(U) or BJP in 2010 elections, it is pertinent to note that Cambridge Analytica was founded in 2013.