The BJP and Congress,in an effort to target the youth and first time voters in the state,are leaving no stones unturned to outsmart each other in the usage of Information Technology tools. Though,the BJP clearly seems to have the edge right now,Congress claims that it is fast catching up. The world has changed a lot since 2004 Lok Sabha polls or even 2007 Assembly Polls,and a lot of myths regarding 'high-tech campaigns not translating into votes' will be shattered this time around. This seems to be the mood in BJP's IT Cell in Gujarat,which is drawing its inspiration from Barack Obama's heavily Internet-loaded Presidential campaign last year. The State IT Cell of BJP has a core team of 10 in Ahmedabad,with 75 cyber teams spread across the state,to aid the core team. In addition,the party has notched up a database of two lakh email ids for bulk-emailing; and about 25,000 mobile phone numbers for bulk messaging,caller tunes,ring tones and various other mobile services solutions. The state unit also manages five websites namely,bjpguj.com,narendramodi.in,fansofnarendramodi.com,jeetegagujarat.com and namoleague.com; with the help party workers and BJP sympathizers. About 1,200 videos containing speeches of BJP leaders have also been uploaded on video sharing sites like youtube.com. IT Cell In-charge Shashi Ranjan Yadav added," Our presence is also significant in various social networking sites. For example,there are about 213 orkut communities on Narendra Modi." BJP is also planning a public rally in Ahmedabad,"which will be attended by orkutians,not necessarily party workers," added Yadav. When Congress announced that it would be setting up hundreds of Internet Kiosks across the country,including 50 in Gujarat,to promote an online campaign for enrolling youth into the party as well as inform them about the UPA's achievement,it surprised many. But the 'Rahul' factor has definitely lifted the spirits in Gujarat,at least in the IT initiatives. In addition,Congress has also tied up with rediff.com to publish poll related articles as well as carry out live opinion polls. Gujarat Youth Congress leader Manish Doshi informed," We have tied-up with various Internet service providers to pitch Congress links as sponsored links in 1,500 websites that witness the maximum traffic over a period of time." The party is also targeting a large fraction of tele-density in the state for mobile service solutions like 'Jai ho' caller tunes,ring tones,screensavers etc. Other initiatives like bulk emailing and bulk-messaging are also in the pipeline. Regarding social networking in the cyber world,Congress also has about 50 orkut communities each on Rahul and Sonia Gandhi. " These are maintained by our younger lot,mainly from the National Students Union of India," added Doshi.
