Rebel congress leader Shehzad Poonawalla released a copy of an alleged pitch made by controversial data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica to the Congress Party. The 49-page document allegedly prepared by Cambridge Analytica is titled "Data Driven Campaign: The Path to the 2019 Lok Sabha". This pitch was allegedly prepared in August 2017 and was presented to the Congress leadership. Congress so far has denied seeking any help from the data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica or its Indian subsidiaries.

The Pitch

The proposal allegedly prepared by the former CEO of Cambridge Analytica Alexander Nix also includes election campaign strategy for upcoming assembly polls such as Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The proposal also talks about creating a National Data Infrastructure Project with an operations center which would function as "the nerve center for congress party's campaign coordination and planning".

According to this document, the cost of research related work has been estimated to be 3,89,460 dollars. But Poonawalla said, "the deal varies between 200 to 500 crores of rupees, on paper, however it is undervalued, the real value of the deal could not be estimated". Congress sources have refused existence of any such deal between Congress Party and Cambridge Analytica. Among the deliverables promised by CA according to this pitch were data mining, national situational analysis, data driven campaign, strategic communication review, media monitoring and planning etc..

Data Mining

The alleged proposal made by Cambridge Analytica boasts of the success of the campaign that made Donald Trump the American president and gives out details of proposed data mining it intended to do in India. "Data engineers and data scientists hoover up data from various sources like party websites, mobile apps and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, build models, segment the audience and provide insights," CA said in the proposal. "Every time somebody signs up on the Indian National Congress website or speaks to a local activist, their details will automatically be recorded in the database and can be used to target mobile and web advertising," CA proposal reads.

Poonawalla said, "the presentation was made by Alexander Nix himself before Rahul Gandhi and one could see the remarkable difference in the social media strategy and campaign of Rahul Gandhi and Congress Party which was very dry until then, everyone could see the sudden spurt in Congress social media presence once Cambridge Analytica got a go ahead from Congress Party".

Earlier Christopher Wylie named the Congress Party as one of CA's clients in front of a house committee of British Parliamnet and a BBC Documentary showed Congress party symbol in the chamber of CA's then CEO Alexander Nix. Nix was suspended from Cambridge Analytica following allegations of large scale illegal data mining of Facebook user data for electoral process.

ALSO READ

Cambridge Analytica insider says it worked extensively in India, names Congress



Congress poster at Cambridge Analytica office leaves party red faced



WATCH | Congress poster spotted on Cambridge Analytica CEO Nix's wall