Why Amit Malviya lost his job as BJP’s social media chief

Amit Malviya’s reign because the BJP’s on-line czar got here to an finish on Monday (August 17, 2026) after an 11-year run, with Deepak Mhaske, former social media convenor for the occasion in Chattisgarh, being appointed in his place.

Many causes are being put ahead for Mr. Malviya’s exit: the size of time he stayed within the place, a brand new occasion president wanting to usher in his personal folks and even the necessity for the BJP for a contemporary have a look at learn how to have interaction Gen-Z on social media — that’s, the relatively apparent level that 2026 just isn’t 2014.

All these causes are true and interconnected.

Mr. Malviya had been given cost of BJP’s social media and data know-how in 2015, taking on from Arvind Gupta, who had helmed the division for a lot of the occasion’s triumphant 2014 Lok Sabha marketing campaign. Mr. Malviya then proceeded to carry that place for a greater a part of the BJP’s 12 years in energy, till the Gen-Z protests hit.

The social media grammar deployed by the Gen-Z protesters was one in all mockery and irreverence, and Mr. Malviya is being seen as heading a staff not solely unable to answer the second but additionally one which has appeared ossified in time because it relied on older social media strategies.

That stated, appointing Mr. Mhaske additionally sends out a number of messages on Mr. Malviya’s exit.

The primary being that BJP president Nitin Nabin had labored carefully with Mr. Mhaske when the previous had been one of many occasion in-charges of the Chhattisgarh Meeting polls in 2023. Mr. Nabin was, at the moment, a Minister within the Bihar authorities and peripheral to the bigger organisational charting. His bonding with Mr. Mhaske was subsequently natural and, as BJP president, he needed somebody inside his personal circle of belief to deal with the occasion’s social media picture.

Segmentary flavour over big-picture discourse

The second side of Mr. Mhaske’s appointment is the truth that a lot of the BJP’s engagement was largely seen as geared toward an city sentiment and coping with Gen-Z as a monolith city phenomenon.

Whereas lip service was paid to the very fact that there have been as many sorts of Gen-Z as there have been different social and financial communities, this segmentary strategy was not adopted.

Mr. Mhaske and Shiwanand Dwivedi (biographer of Residence Minister Amit Shah) are anticipated to awaken the agricultural, semi-rural, tier-two Gen-Z sentiment, having their very own explicit considerations and points. Count on the BJP’s on-line engagement to now have extra of a micro-aimed and segmentary flavour than the big-picture discourses of the previous.

Nothing has been stated of Mr. Malviya’s future throughout the BJP after the brand new staff was introduced, however he had been a part of the profitable staff of the West Bengal polls, being nationwide secretary accountable for the State.

BJP insiders say that whereas he might have failed to satisfy the second throughout the Gen-Z protests, he might but get one other task quickly.