Cambridge Analytica row: KC Tyagi denies son's company influenced Bihar elections

Janta Dal (United) MP KC Tyagi on Thursday dismissed allegations of collusion between Cambridge Analytica and his son Amrish Tyagi's company to influence the 2010 Bihar Assembly elections.

"There was only a work relation between my son Amrish's company and Cambridge Analytica , there is no financial transaction or shareholding, everything is open to probe," Tyagi told reporters here.

Cambridge Analytica (CA), the British data Analytics Company, along with Facebook has come under fire for allegedly harvesting personal data of Facebook users to influence elections in several countries including US presidential elections.

The CA's website claims to have helped its client to win Bihar Assembly elections in 2010 when JD(U) and BJP alliance had won the polls.

K.C. Tyagi's son, Amrish is the managing director of the company's India partner Ovleno Business Intelligence (OBI), which lists the BJP, Congress and JDU as its clients.

Tyagi also clarified that JDU has no links with Cambridge Analytica, and that its CEO neither ever met him or Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

"In any case, JDU is a socialist outfit and we stay away from such things, except for maybe Prashant Kishore ji helping us during last assembly polls," Tyagi added.

Earlier in the day, the party had asked Tyagi for an explanation in the matter, after his son's name cropped up.

Amrish Tyagi's company, OBI, while accepting its association with CA, denied undertaking any project with it related to social media.

"We are not denying our association with SCL/Cambridge Analytica but we are a ground research company closely working with various media houses and not undertake any project with CA related to social media (especially Facebook)," Himanshu Sharma, Vice President of OBI stated.

The company also indicated ending association with CA.

Meanwhile, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav demanded JDU answer why it remained this company's client since 2010, "JDU should answer why it remained this company's client since 2010, what is the matter? Nitish Kumar's popularity has declined so much that he has to take help from Prashant Kishore and foreign agencies.