BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitaraman told reporters on Sunday that the legal notice was served on the Congress on September 27, but there had been no official response from it.
She said a website www.bjp.com had come to its notice recently and when the site was opened, it diverted the user to the AICC website automatically.
“The BJP sent a legal notice to the Congress on a matter of petty theft...a theft so low...of its political rival’s identity. A pickpocket-like theft. But the ruling party has not yet responded to it officially,” Sitaraman said here.
“Political parties, when they registered as websites, do so in the .org format as they are not commercial institutions.
“Political parties do not register under .com because commercial establishments usually have .com websites. But some time back, bjp.com has been created by some...we do not know who,” she said.
Since the website was “masked” and linked itself to the Congress website, it was important for the BJP to know who was behind it and hence the legal notice to the ruling party, she added.
Sitaraman said the bjp.com website’s owner details were provided as Bharat Journals and Publications and some telephone numbers in the US had been provided. When contacted, the US phones were connected to answering machines, with nobody responding to the calls.