New Delhi, Mar 26: The Congress on Monday deleted its official mobile phone application - With INC - after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) levelled charges of data-theft.

As per the BJP's allegations, the data of With INC app users is being shared with firms in Singapore. To validate the charge, the party's IT cell head, Amit Malviya, shared the following tweet:

Within a couple of hours, the app turned inaccessible and remained unfound on the Google Play Store. According to TV reports, the app was deleted by the Congress after the BJP red-flagged the alleged data-theft.

A day earlier, Congress president Rahul Gandhi levelled similar charges at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of transferring the data of the 'Narendra Modi app' users to a third-party American firm.

The Gandhi scion's charge was based upon the startling claims made by French researcher Elliot Anderson. According to him, the personal data of Narendra Modi app users is being transferred to an app marketing company - Celever Tap. To validate his charge, he posted the following tweet:

The BJP , however, denied the claims made by the hacker calling it baseless. The party's IT Cell said the nominal information collected from NaMo app users is being used for analytical purposes, "similar to how Google Analytics uses the data".

Insead, the BJP accused Congress of sharing data with ideologically linked organisations.

Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, however, said the party's IT Cell need to rebut the allegations levelled by the Congress, rather than only levelling counter-accusations.

"IT cell (BJP) spokesperson must respond to this. They've become weak. PM must take this into his own hands and ask them to respond to baseless allegations through evidence. IT Cell is only making counter allegations. What purpose would that serve," Swamy said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 26, 2018 12:55 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).