"Modi aanewala hai, Namo Namo...." goes a song on the phone of a BJP office bearer. If someone downloads the caller tune, it costs Rs 10, which goes to the party's 'one-note, one-vote' campaign.
A BJP leader makes a call sitting in his office in Delhi to connect with party leaders in Bihar. One by one, he asks the state leaders the status of the 'one-note, one-vote' campaign in the state through
telebridge teleconferencing, which allows him to have a conversation with 500 people in different locations.
The BJP has given a hi-tech twist to its traditional mass contact programme of seeking donations along with votes. This will run parallel to the party's another, equally hi-tech tea campaign in which the party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has been using the internet to address people at thousands of tea shops across the country.
"Modi has made the mass outreach programs technology driven. The telebridge technology is being used by the topmost party leaders to coordinate with the foot soldiers," says BJP general secretary Dharmendra Pradhan.
While party leaders and workers launched the door-to-door campaign in various states, the tech-savvy have various options of donating towards the "Modi for PM" fund.
"There are multiple options for people to pay. Donations can be made through mobile apps, on the party's website and through facebook. If you download the Modi caller tune, it costs Rs 10 and would be an indirect contribution to the party," said BJP's IT cell convenor Arvind Gupta.
Party leaders have started going from house to house with plastic boxes that say "sahyog ka ek note, kamal par vote", a pamphlet that has an appeal from party president Rajnath Singh, a few lines on Modi's life and his vision.
Modi, who has emphasised using technology to reach out, particularly to the youth, has also been asking party cadre to focus on conventional door-to-door campaigning in the poll battle. It was with this in mind that the party had decided to adopt the vote and donations strategy which was undertaken by the Jan Sangh in the 1970s.
