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New Delhi: In a major organisational reshuffle, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) removed Amit Malviya as the head of its IT cell Monday.
Malviya was appointed the national head of its IT Cell in 2015 under then national president Amit Shah. Deepak Mhaskey will replace Malviya as social media convenor. In 2015, Malviya, along with Arvind Gupta, was given charge of the BJP’s IT, website, and social media management.
The move follows Gen Z protests spearheaded by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), during which the BJP’s media team including the IT cell was criticised by many, including RSS ideologue Ratan Sharda, for its disconnect with ground realities.
Not only this, Sharda had earlier criticised Malviya for “trolling citizens”, and had termed it a “serious problem”. At that time, Sharda advised Malviya to refrain from insulting people. Sharda was reacting to Malviya’s post on X where he challenged detractors of Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget decision to eliminate indexation in property sales. “Everyone is an indexation specialist tonight,” Malviya said in a sarcastic message, which he later deleted.
Reacting to it, Sharda had posted, “This attitude of #BJP IT Cell is a serious problem. Instead of coming up with simplified communication about good points of #Budget2024, he ends up trolling citizens. Answer their fear, don’t insult them, dear Amit Malviya.”
According to a senior BJP leader, while many leaders were replaced in the past, Malviya continued to enjoy the central leadership’s support, a situation that has changed in recent years.
“Har samay aggression nahi chalta, thoda logic bhi hona chaiye (aggression doesn’t work always, logic should be used too),” said a senior BJP leader. The central team was unhappy with Malviya as IT cell chief over a few recent incidents, including some posts related to foreign relations,” they said.
While many within the BJP praised Malviya’s ability for “narrative setting”, which helped the BJP stay ahead of the competition especially during elections, a section in the party felt that “certain boundaries” were crossed.
Malviya, who hails from Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, has also served as a national spokesperson. He was also made co-incharge for West Bengal in 2020 ahead of the 2021 Assembly polls. According to media reports, he had launched a forum called friendsofbjp.org in 2009 and through that he connected with the BJP.
As ThePrint has reported, the new team under party chief Nitin Nabin has led to changes in the party’s entire social media team, with four new coordinators appointed from different states.
“One must have dignity and should not stoop to a certain level. At times, many posts were called out for peddling lies and were even highlighted as fake news. It was ignored for a while but it can’t become the norm,” said a BJP functionary.
Malviya also had a tiff with the then Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy who had given an ultimatum to the BJP to remove Malviya after he accused Malviya of running a campaign against him using fake tweets.
According to sources, Amit Malviya and his team were instrumental in reaching out to voters through their vast network on WhatsApp and Facebook, which helped them stay ahead of the competition. However, the recent protest by Gen Z indicated the party’s growing ‘disconnect’ with the youth.
“There was definitely a disconnect between Gen Z and the BJP. As far as social media is concerned we were still deploying the same tools to reach out to the youth. Our Instagram game was also not on point. Even the new posts and ads aimed at reaching the youth were criticised by Gen Z,” added another leader.
However, a senior BJP leader, while defending the work carried out under Malviya, said he effectively shaped the BJP’s social media strategy over the past 11 years, which helped reach core voters.
“Everything has a shelf life and the work he has done so far was quite good. But the party now needs to promote new faces and fresh ideas. Sometimes, being in the same position for so long affects creativity and our response during the Gen Z protest reflects that,” he added.
According to sources, in West Bengal where he was the co-incharge, Malviya faced criticism for not giving an audience to senior state party leaders during the West Bengal Assembly elections.
After the reshuffle, Malviya congratulated the new team on X. “Congratulations to all the newly appointed office bearers of the BJP. Their appointments come at a crucial juncture as the party prepares to scale newer heights and take its message and organisation to every corner of the country,” Malviya posted on X.
Congratulations to all the newly appointed office bearers of the BJP. Their appointments come at a crucial juncture as the party prepares to scale newer heights and take its message and organisation to every corner of the country.
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) August 17, 2026
I wish to particularly congratulate Shri Deepak…
“I wish to particularly congratulate Deepak Mhaskey-ji, who will be taking over from me as the head of the BJP’s Social Media Department, and co-conveners Priti Gandhi-ji, Shivanand Dwivedi-ji, Alok Bhatt-ji and Arun Yadav-ji. I have had the privilege of working closely with each of them over the last decade. I am confident that under their leadership, the BJP’s digital communication will achieve newer milestones and continue to shape India’s public discourse with conviction, creativity and clarity,” he added.
He also thanked the “BJP’s massive support base on social media, a community brimming with commitment, energy and ideas. This family has stayed together through thick and thin and played a decisive role in reshaping India’s public discourse. You have been an incredible source of strength to me personally and to the cause. Over my eleven years at the helm, I have had the opportunity to meet and interact with many of you, and those interactions will always remain special”.
Article source: theprint.in