The JD(U) today asserted that it never used the services of controversial data firm Cambridge Analytica, and its president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar never had any meeting with its now sacked CEO Alexander Nix.
The comments from its spokesperson K C Tyagi came after opposition parties alleged that the JD(U)-BJP alliance used the services of Cambridge Analytica in the 2010 assembly polls.
The fact that K C Tyagi's son Amrish Tyagi heads Ovleno Business Intelligence (OBI), said to be the Indian affiliate of Cambridge Analytica, has been used by opposition parties to allege a link between the regional party and the disgraced firm.
K C Tyagi told reporters that his son's firm has a "working relationship" but no "business transaction" with the company and claimed that it involves no financial transaction.
"Nitish Kumar has never met him (Nix)," he said.
In a statement, OBI vice president Himanshu Sharma said it is looking to end its association with Cambridge Analytica and asserted that "we are a ground research company closely working with various media houses and do not undertake any project with CA related to social media (especially Facebook)".
"We are equally shocked and surprised by the data breach controversy and we are also looking to end our association with them. CA has already suspended Alexander Nix who is under fire... but we are not authorised to speak on behalf of them," he said.
He also noted that neither the whistle-blower, who flagged the unlawful harvesting of people's information from Facebook by CA, nor Facebook has said that there is any kind of data breach is India.
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