IT savvy campaign fails, road shows rules Indian voter Friday, May 14 2004 12:01 Hrs (IST)
New Delhi:
The IT-savvy campaign of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) that included phone-ins by the Prime Minister, sms and e-mails miserably failed to woo the electorate a bulk of which failed to "feel-good" and preferred the age-old "jansampark"
(road show) style of the Italian-born Congress president.
Adding a corporate flavour to its campaign, the BJP spin-doctors chalked out strategies from what they called "war rooms" and used all the mass media at its disposal to make its 79-year old "brand" leader reach out individually to people.
The PM's recorded messages seeking a second mandate to make India a developed nation and a superpower were sent across to all the seven million basic land lines and all cell phone users in the country, the party claimed.
In addition, the high-tech cell operating from campaign-in-charge Pramod Mahajan's house sent across thousands of e-mails for the PM's message to percolate.
One-sided as the blitzkrieg remained, it gave the rivals enough fodder as it fine-tuned the IT tools to make their phone-ins interactive and targeted a select few people in select constituencies.