New Delhi, Nov 3 (IANS): As soon as the Congress triggered a row by claiming that party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi had been a target of the snooping through WhatsApp, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit back saying the grand old party was "imagining" things.

Taking to Twitter to negate the claim, BJP's IT cell chief Amit Malviya said, "Haven't we seen the Congress imagining things that didn't exist?"

"Remember them claiming that Rahul Gandhi's life was in danger when a green light, off a video camera, flashed on his face during a media briefing. Well, that's the level of their leaders' credibility in public life," he tweeted.

Malviya was referring to an incident in the thick of election in April when the Congress had termed flashing of a green light on Gandhi's face as a "serious security breach". But it turned out to be an embarrassment as the light was found to be emanating from a camera person's mobile who was working for the AICC.

The Home Ministry spokesperson had clarified, "The Director (SPG) has informed it that they have gone through the video clipping of the incident. The "green light" shown in the clipping was found to be that of a mobile phone used by the AICC photographer, who was videographing the impromptu press interaction of Rahul Gandhi near the collectorate at Amethi."

Raising of the April incident by Malviya to rubbish the Congress snoopgate claim has triggered a verbal duel between the two parties and the Congress is now expected to counter it.

The BJP's reaction came minutes after Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala held a press conference and claimed, "The illegal spyware 'Pegasus' was used to hack cell phones in the run-up to the 2019 general elections. The BJP government was fully aware of it. Despite repeated reminders from Facebook, the government didn't act."