The BJP wesbite shows a message: "We'll be back soon!"
The website of the ruling BJP remained under "maintenance" on Wednesday - a day after it was allegedly hacked, fuelling memes and snipes on social media from the party's detractors for the second day.
Attempts to reach the BJP website on Wednesday led to the same message that was shown first on Tuesday: "We will be back soon! Sorry for the inconvenience but we're performing some maintenance at the moment. We'll be back online shortly!"
The BJP website had gone down yesterday, with most people being timed out when trying to access it. Some users claimed they saw a meme featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, accompanied with a music video. Screenshots of the meme were posted on Twitter.
Today, BJP sources denied the website had been hacked. "The website wasn't hacked. It's just a technical issue which is being fixed. No complaint has been lodged with the police. The website will be operational at the earliest," a source in the BJP's information technology cell said, requesting not to be named.
But Subimal Bhattacharjee, a cybersecurity expert contested the claim. "Some level of wrongdoing has happened. Someone did gain access to the website. BJP's website is one of the most active political websites here with a lot of content," he told NDTV.
"It's good that instead of coming up with a back-up website, they are working to fix all the loopholes," he added.
The downtime did not spare the BJP of barbs from the Congress. "We realise you've been down for a long time now. If you need help getting back up, we're happy to help," tweeted the Congress from its official account, with a "hug" emoticon.
However, this post earned the Congress a dig from the Aam Aadmi Party too: "Just like what you did in Delhi! This election wherever BJP is down, Congress will help it to get back up. As we said #CongressHelpingBJP."
Arvind Kejriwal's party accuses the Congress of rejecting an alliance in Delhi because of an understanding with the BJP to gang up against AAP.