War of the Websites

O Indian Express explora a campanha cibernética, comparando novas estratégias electrónicas do Congresso e BJP. O BJP foi o primeiro partido a iniciar a digitalização da campanha, em 1999, com o falecido Pramod Mahajan. Embora este tipo de campanha tenha crescente importância para cativar os novos eleitorados jovens, formados e urbanos, não deixa de ser marginal. Compreende-se assim também o relativo desinteresse do Congresso, mais concentrado em ganhar o voto dos que nem ligação à rede pública de água e electricidade têm. Excertos:

Congresso
With an extremely limited budget, we created an information-heavy, easily navigable site with light pages enabling quick loading and a very simple interface. Our studies had revealed that connectivity is still very slow in much of India and this kind of site would do better than a bells-and-whistles heavy site. ... In 2009 the BJP campaign seems to be Advani and the BJP Shining while the Congress campaign is for Aam Aadmi Ke Badhte Kadam. This is exactly replicated in the websites. Website do INC: http://www.aicc.org.in/new/

BJP
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) takes great pride in the fact that way back in 1996 it became the first Indian political party to have its own website: www.bjp.org. In 2008, L.K. Advani became the first prime ministerial candidate to have his own personal website: www.lkadvani.in. Compare this with the fact that the Congress website was launched eight years later in 2004, and the fact that the top 3 Congress leaders do not have their personal websites, and you can clearly see why there is a generational gap in the appreciation of technology between the BJP and the Congress.