Advani's Vijay Sankalp rallies go online

The election team of Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance's prime ministerial candidate Lal Krishna Advani has put on its thinking caps to conjure up the maximum number of audience for his campaign rallies.

Prodyut Bora, the communication wizard who heads the party's IT Cell, is planning to capture Advani's recent spree of Vijay Sankalp rallies on camera and post it on the internet to attract a larger audience.

A BJP team, armed with video cameras and laptops, will travel with Advani and record his public addresses, which will then be uploaded to his portal www.lkadvani.in.

Bora claims that the portal already gets 20,000 to 25,000 hits per day.

"We hope that this figure gets closer to one lakh hits per day during the election. These days, if you address a rally of one lakh people, it is a great hit," Bora explained.

In a plan submitted to Advani -- Bora pointed out that 60 per cent of the 45 million
Internet users in India are from eight cities -- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad. These cities account for 50 Lok Sabha seats and their voters will be the target of the Internet campaign kicked off by Bora.

"We will consider ourselves successful in our initiative if we cam manage an even one per sent swing in these 50 seats," Bora stressed.

Not all BJP leaders agree with Advani's decision to woo voters over the Internet, as they believe that elections in India are fought on the ground, since most voters are not net-savvy. Many voters located in rural areas are unaware of the Internet and the connectivity is limited in other places.

But Bora believes that by watching the Vijay Sankap rallies online, netizens will have a better understanding of the issues at stake.

Bora has also suggested that local TV channels should be approached to telecast Advani's speeches live, at a very nominal cost, so that his message reaches all those people who have been unable to attend the rally.