Hours after the BJP announced its new national social media team, the X profiles of several of the office-bearers became unavailable. This came at a time when some X users began circulating screenshots of their older posts that had become controversial.
The BJP on Monday (August 17, 2026) appointed Deepak Mhaske as its national social media convener, ending Amit Malviya’s 11-year tenure. The party also appointed Priti Gandhi, Shivanand Dwivedi, Alok Bhatt and Arun Yadav as co-conveners.
The reshuffle follows a period of youth-led protests, particularly the one in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar led by the Cockroach Janta Party, which gained significant traction on social media.
Deepak Mhaske
On Mr. Mhaske’s X handle, @deepakmhaskey, which was created in 2009, several old posts are no longer visible.
An academic from Chhattisgarh, Mr. Mhaske has worked with the BJP’s IT and social media machinery for 15 years. While he mostly remained out of the limelight, he was involved in the party’s social media management during elections in Bihar and West Bengal, both of which were won by the BJP.
After his appointment on Saturday, he said the BJP’s social media team would work to counter what it considers propaganda and address misconceptions about the party and the government.
The posts no longer visible on his X profile included a video from July 2024 that raised questions about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s religion. Several of his past posts targeted the Congress and former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.
At present, posts from before Monday are not visible on his X timeline, but replies to posts are still available to view.
The Hindu tried to reach out to Mr. Mhaske for his comment on the matter, but did not receive a response.
Priti Gandhi
Ms. Gandhi, who was previously associated with the women’s wing of the BJP, has regularly posted on X via her handle @MRSGandhi. However, currently, her X profile is not publicly accessible.
In November 2025, her post on Indian cricketer Jemimah Rodrigues had created a controversy. Ms. Gandhi criticised Rodrigues over her decision to bring her religion into the discussion around her representation of India, triggering a debate over religion and sporting identity.
Alt News co-founder and fact-checker Mohammed Zubair shared a screenshot of another purported X post in which Ms. Gandhi purportedly claims to be a “huge fan of Nathuram Godse”, Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin. In a post, which is also currently not available, she said that she was ashamed of her surname. “I should have been a Godse,” she wrote.
Alok Bhatt
Mr. Bhatt’s X profile is also currently not publicly available.
Senior advocate Vrinda Grover shared a screenshot of a controversial post allegedly made by Mr. Bhatt that seemed to target a Congress leader. Referring to the post, Ms. Grover wrote, “The youth are speaking to you in your favoured language. Bhatt has been rewarded by the PM and the BJP for such vile innuendoes.”
In another now-unavailable post, Mr. Bhatt purportedly criticised the reservation system. “Reservation is the 2nd biggest cancer afflicting India after Jihadism- everything else flows from that!” he had written in the post. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has, however, spoken in support of reservation on multiple occasions.
Arun Yadav
Mr. Yadav, whose X account is also not currently publicly available, had been at the centre of a controversy in 2022 when his posts from 2017 that referenced Islamic beliefs resurfaced online. Subsequently, the BJP had removed him from his position as the leader in charge of the party’s Haryana IT cell, though it did not publicly give any reason for his removal.
Shivanand Dwivedi
Shivanand Dwivedi has had a lower public profile than the other members of the BJP’s new social media team. His social media posts have not led to any major controversy and there are no reports of his posts becoming recently unavailable.
Published – August 18, 2026 10:11 pm IST
