Congress data analytics team, which helped in Lok Sabha election ticket distribution, to be scrapped

NEW DELHI: Congress is leaving no stone unturned to revamp itself after its debacle in the Lok Sabha election. The party will now be scrapping the Data Analytics Department which played a big role in suggesting the names of candidates who were given tickets for the parliamentary election.

The department was also responsible for the functioning of the party's mobile application Shakti. Through the app, voters could give their feedback for the nominees on the basis of which party candidates were selected.

Since all permutations and combinations fell flat, there were rumours that the outgoing Congress chief Rahul Gandhi was not given accurate findings from the data that was collected through the app. There were speculations that inflated winner margins were calculated and conveyed to Rahul which led to confusion. After the election results, several questions had been raised on the credibility of the department's reports.

However, the department chief Praveen Chakravarty had rubbished the reports calling it an utter digrace. "A recent gossip column about the activities of data analytics department of the Congress party during the recently-concluded Lok Sabha election has been brought to my attention. Every line in that column is a lie. Equally, other similar stories based entirely on unnamed sources, masquerading as investigative pieces, are plain rubbish. These are obviously mischievous, defamatory, patently absurd and sadly an utter disgrace to Indian journalism," he had said in a statement on June 17.

Chakravarty had said that he and his department continue to function actively from their offices at the All India Congress Committee headquarters.

The party had renamed the party's computer cell as the Data Analytics Department in March 2018. It had appointed former investment banker Praveen Chakravarty as its head. Sharing the update, Rahul had tweeted: "Excited to announce a ‘Data Analytics’ department under the leadership of Praveen Chakravarty to effectively use ‘Big Data’."