Cyber campaigning may come of age with '09 polls

NEW DELHI, INDIA: With nearly one-fourth of the country going to polls to elect the 15th Lok Sabha on April 16, and the second phase of the elections to take place on April 23, the battle royale for the PM’s seat is nearing its climax for various political parties.

Since the 2009 election promises to be a closely fought one, no party is leaving any stone unturned in its pursuit of the voter, with much attention and time being given to the first-time voters and the tech-savvy middle class. The battle for the ballot has now spilled on to the cyberspace, with each party looking at making gains by hosting websites, blogs, or sending emails.

Much attention is being given to the first-time voters and over 50 million tech-savvy Indians in cyberspace. Each party is looking at gaining by hosting websites, blogs, or sending emails and SMS, according to the latest issue of Dataquest, the flagship magazine of CyberMedia group.

Both the Congress and the BJP have had online presence for a long time. The rest like the Communist Party of India (CPI), Telugu Desam Party, Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), all have a web presence. Many parties are now adopting interactive Internet strategies, building online communities at social networking site and actively using mobile to reach out to the electorate.

In this Cyber race, the saffron party revamped its BJP.org and launched a blog by the prime ministerial candidate LK Advani (blogs.lkadvani.in). Going by the figures, Advani would be the most tech-active leader right now posting blogs, chatting online, posting videos, images, and the works. There is a user group named Friends of the BJP, that religiously updates videos and blogs on different websites like You Tube and Orkut.

The 'Cyber Chanakya' for BJP, Prodyut Bora, the convener of the party’s IT cell, has a robust game plan for the party. Nearly 60 per cent of the 40-50 million Internet users live in top eight cities impacting around 50 Lok Sabha seats, making the medium worth a try. The party has also signed up with Google, and little wonder any search that is around elections throws up results pertaining to Advani or the BJP, the Dataquest study adds.

Regional parties embrace Internet



Regional parties do not seriously consider using the Internet to reach out to their voters, simply because the Web is still not considered a mass medium. Parties that try to cater to niche vote banks or caste combinations are often oblivious to how to use the Internet.

The CPI (M) has been more Internet savvy and the website of the party www.cpim.org is more attuned to the net-savvy users across India with a section www.vote.cpim.org that serves to disseminate its manifesto, white papers, advertising messages and songs complete with a You Tube video community, with video interviews and snippets postings.

Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress has also woken up to the power of the Web; the TMC website is now up and running. It is however still a first-generation website, with static information about the party. Still, it's a beginning. Post Singur, Mamta Banerjee has acquired an anti-development image, and the Internet could be a good medium to give her side of the story.

For instance, in Maharashtra, Raj Thackeray through his website (manase.org) has been trying to reach out to the intelligentsia and the moderates, spelling out his 'real reasons' terming it as "understanding the misunderstandings". Web can be a great medium for 'balancing criticism', if effectively employed.

Waking giant



Congress (I) has been slow to respond to the online onslaught but is waking up to the challenge. The party recently launched an online video community on You Tube, and there are scores of Rahul fan clubs on Facebook and Orkut. Yet, for some very strange reason, the party has yet to launch an individual blog or website for its youth mascot Rahul Gandhi.

The former CM of Andhra Chandrababu Naidu and his Telugu Desam Party even has a website for the UK-based NRIs. The website also has an online contribution campaign.

Though prime ministerial wannabe Mayawati is expected to launch her own blog soon, the party website (bahujansamajp.com) has not been updated for long. Samajwadi Party (samajwadipartyindia.com) and RJD also seem to be oblivious to the power of the Net, having rudimentary websites put up.

Ibrahim Ahmad, group editor of Dataquest concludes that besides low cost the parties can draw other advantages from the Internet. The election code of conduct is unclear on how the promotion on the Internet can be stopped 48 hours before each round of polling. The candidates can still reach out to their communities through online websites even when the voting process is on.