The Hindu Business Line : Political parties in AP get Net savvy

Unlike in the last general elections when the Web was still in its infancy, the upcoming elections to both the Assembly and Lok Sabha have opened up a new opportunity to political parties, newspapers and some entrepreneurs in the State.

The main political parties and some entrepreneurs have woken up to it.

While Telugu Desam runs www.telugudesamparty.org, Congress (I), CPI (M) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the three national parties, have opened their State-specific portals with links to their parent portals at national level.

Keeping these official sites of parties apart, there are some other portals like www.ysrportal.com and www.ap-politics.com that focus primarily on Andhra Pradesh politics.

Mr C.V. Siva Prasada Rao, Editor and promoter of www.ap-politics.com, feels that response to political Web sites is growing. He spent about Rs 10 lakh on this portal and a couple of others run by his company. "It is getting us some ads too," he said.

Mr Rao, however, admitted that it would take some time before it became a self-sustaining venture. "We would like to make it a comprehensive information source on electoral politics. We are building a huge database of all information on elections," he said.

"Besides, we are providing links to sites of various political parties, governments and other stakeholders in politics," he added.

Mr Jagan, Editor of leading Telugu daily Andhrajyothy's Internet edition, saw a significant change in the way Net was being used.

"Internet usage in the country was largely seen as an elitist expression four years ago. At a later stage, Telugu dailies were mostly catering to the NRI market. But now there is a sea change. We have got a significant chunk of visitors from the State," Mr Jagan said.

As the name suggests, www.ysrportal.com is on Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Leader of Opposition in the dissolved Assembly. Managed by some his friends, the site got a monthly average of five lakh hits and 30,000 visitors, a team member said. "We have got registered visitors from over 20 countries," he added.

The portal claims to have more visitors than those who visit all of Andhra Pradesh Government's official Web sites.

The portal organised a global Web-conference in January. "As many as 100 NRIs living in ten countries took part in the discussion," he said.

The portal has also taken up a massive e-mail campaign, obviously in support of Dr Rajasekhara Reddy.

"We are trying to reach mail boxes of two lakh people not necessarily living in Andhra Pradesh. We have collected the IDs and the first of the mails have already been despatched," he added.

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