Telugu Desam still No. 1 in hitech politics

BY J.R.PRASAD
Hyderabad, Dec. 16: It was the Telugu Desam chief, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, who first tried to make politics more IT-savvy through websites and online campaigns. Now even his arch rivals have picked up the cue and are trying to outdo the TD in its own game.
Parties are running colourful websites to attract voters and are also using the services of the techies to conduct campaigns in IT firms and university campuses. Of course, as an early starter, Mr Naidu still has the advantage. His party has launched a separate wing "Telugu Sanketika Nipunula Vibhagam" (Wing of Telugu technocrats) to effectively propagate its views and ideology among the elite class and techies. Besides this, the TD has also launched as many as 12 websites to muster the support of various sections of people.
The day-to-day activities of the Telugu Desam can be monitored through tdp.org. The NTR Trust is also running a web radio in this site to keep party workers abreast on the latest political happenings. Telugudesam.org is another site which more or less does the same thing.
The TD has also launched an exclusive web site, tdpmobile.com, to take up Internet campaign. Party activists and sympathisers can download ring tones, dialer tones and wallpapers from this site.

Then there is ntr.td.org which gives details about the life of the party founder N.T. Rama Rao, and cbn.td.org gives the biography of Mr Naidu. The Telugu Desam has also got an exclusive site tdpportal.com for the party's internal activities. "Our leaders have their web accounts in it and the party's routine affairs are undertaken through this," said a techie working in the NTR Trust Bhavan.

Then there is the nritdp.com and the ntrtrust.com and a separate site which details the failures of the present regime, saveandhrapradesh.com. Though megastar Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam has not launched an official website so far, close aides of Chiranjeevi and his die-hard fans are running dozens of websites in his support.

Not to be left behind, the BJP, the TRS, the Left and the Nava Telangana Party also entered the fray. But, their share is minimal. As usual, the ruling Congress stands last in using the web to further its cause.