Whistleblower Christopher Wylie has claimed that Cambridge Analytica’s parent company SCL maintained a database of 7 lakh villages and 600 districts in India, and consulted various political parties including the Janata Dal (United) in the run-up to over 7 national and state elections.

Wylie, who exposed the methods used by the company to attempt to influence elections in multiple countries, tweeted 3 images with the data in response to requests from Indian journalists.

According to the data, which CNBC-TV18 has not verified independently, SCL carried out its research before the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan between 2003 and 2012.

The whistleblower also claims that SCL had managed the campaigns of a number of Lok Sabha candidates during the 2009 general elections.

While the Janata Dal (United) was the only political party mentioned by name, phrases like ‘national party’ and ‘major party’ were mentioned.

The country’s two largest parties, the Bharatiya Janta Party and the Indian National Congress have been accusing each other of using Cambridge Analytica’s data to sway voters.

The second image was a map of SCL’s zonal offices in India and suggests that company had at least 10 offices in India, with its head office in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.

The third image detailed a process called ‘Caste research and analysis’, which details how SCL’s campaign team could understand caste influences among Indian voters and create targeted messaging with this information.

The British political consulting firm is at the centre of a controversy involving data harvested from Facebook users and is being investigated for its role in the Brexit vote and US President Donald Trump's election campaign.

First Published:Mar 28, 2018 3:16 PM IST