The BJP has handed charge of its national IT cell to Chhattisgarh’s Deepak Mhaskey, ending Amit Malviya’s run of more than 10 years at the head of the party’s digital operations – a decade in which he was the BJP’s loudest voice online and, by some distance, its most fact-checked.

Malviya is still co-incharge of West Bengal, a state the party swept in the recent assembly elections. Mhaskey, on the other hand, was part of the party’s social media team. Before entering electoral data analysis, he taught chemistry and worked across agriculture and horticulture. He has also sat on the board of a public-sector undertaking and occupied a senior post in the Chhattisgarh administration.

The BJP has simultaneously rebuilt its social media unit, naming four coordinators drawn from four states: Preeti Gandhi (Maharashtra), Shivanand Dwivedi (Delhi), Alok Bhatt (Uttarakhand) and Arun Yadav (Haryana).

Anil Baluni stays on as media convenor.

Taken together, the appointments signal an attempt to tighten and expand the party’s online machinery nationally under party president Nitin Nabin.

The list includes former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Ram Madhav, Baijayant Jay Panda, D Purandeshwari, Rekha Verma, Bharti Pawar and Manpreet Singh Badal among 13 new vice-presidents.

In the list of eight general secretaries, Vinod Tawde and Sunil Bansal are the only holdovers. Smriti Irani returns to the team alongside former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb, with Satish Poonia, Gajendra Patel, Harish Dwivedi and Sanjay Bhatia completing the group. B L Santhosh remains national general secretary (organisation), assisted by Shivprakash and Saudan Singh as joint general secretaries (organisation).

The party has announced several new secretaries, including Kavita Patidar, K Surendran, Sandeep Pathak and Manoj Tigga, spread across states.

A BJP insider said many in the party are happy with this decision. “Because of him (Malviya), many influencers who were sharing our content have distanced themselves from the BJP. Many influencers share our content because of ideology, not just money. Within the party, he had become a power centre.” 

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