Within minutes of the BJP announcing its new social media team on Monday, August 17, a search on X revealed that the accounts of the four newly appointed social media co-convenors had either vanished or their posts had become inaccessible.
Priti Gandhi, Shivanand Dwivedi, Alok Bhatt and Arun Yadav were appointed as social media co-convenors by BJP national president Nitin Nabin. Gandhi’s profile initially remained accessible but her timeline showed no recent posts, suggesting that her tweets had been deleted. Soon after, her profile disappeared altogether, displaying X’s “account doesn’t exist” notice. The X profiles of the other three appointees are also currently inaccessible.
The X handles belonging to Shiwanand Dwivedi and Arun Yadav have been made private while Alok Bhatt’s X handle has been deactivated.
The appointments came as part of a rejig of the BJP’s national office bearers, with Amit Malviya, who had served as the party’s social media convenor since 2015, replaced by Deepak Mhaskey.
Deepak Mhaskey’s X account (@deepakmhaskey), which is not a verified handle as of August 18, offers a clear indication that posts were removed. At 5:19 pm on August 17, the account displayed 6,905 posts. The same account currently displays 5,563 posts — a reduction of 1,342 posts. (Screenshots below)
His timeline tells a more striking story: Only two original posts are currently visible, both posted on August 17, both concerning his appointment as the social media convenor of the party. The discrepancy is particularly noteworthy given Mhaskey’s new role.
At least three of the four newly appointed co-convenors have a documented history of amplifying communal rhetoric and spreading misinformation. Gandhi has been fact-checked by Alt News multiple times for disseminating communal misinformation. Her X activity shows repeated support for Nathuram Godse, including a tweet expressing her desire to have Godse as her last name instead of Gandhi.
In March 2014, Priti Gandhi was identified by WikiLeaks as the person responsible for amplifying a fabricated endorsement of Narendra Modi. Gandhi had promoted a fake quote falsely attributed to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, claiming he said Modi was “incorruptible,” complete with Assange’s forged signature. Modi’s online supporters then seized upon the false endorsement as a high-profile international validation of the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate’s credentials.
Alok Bhatt, meanwhile, has a pattern of publicly posting sexist and anti-Muslim slurs. He has even targeted journalists like Barkha Dutt using vitriolic language.
Arun Yadav, who was the BJP Haryana IT cell in-charge, was removed by the party on July 7, 2022, amid calls for his arrest over his Islamophobic tweets, dating between May 2022 and 2017. #ArrestArunYadav was trending at the time with over 184,000 tweets. The state BJP president said Yadav was removed with immediate effect but gave no reason.
Malviya congratulated the new office-bearers in an X post and said they have been appointed at a “crucial juncture”. Speaking specifically about the social media co-convenors, he said he had the “privilege of working closely with each of them” and that he was confident that under their leadership, the party’s digital communication would “achieve newer milestones and continue to shape India’s public discourse with conviction, creativity and clarity.”
Just as this report was getting published, the X account of Shiwanand Dwidevi (@shiwadwivedi) became accessible again. Notably, the total post count came down from 10,800 (as shows in the screenshot used in this story) to 10,200. This indicates that roughly around 600 posts were removed.
