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Bizarre methods used by politicians just before an election to grab the attention of voters have never been unusual in Indian politics. But take a look at the website created by the Telugu Desam Party – the opposition party desperate to come back to power in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh – for U.K.-based nonresident Indians, and it appears that bizarrerie has perhaps reached its height in Indian politics. (http://www.tdpuk.com)

On that website, not only has N. Chandrababu Naidu, the TDP chief, morphed his face into an image of Barack Obama, he has also copied Obama’s tactic of using the website as a channel to garner campaign funds. And for U.S.-based Indians he has crafted a catchphrase: “Move over Bush, it is Obama’s time … it is our Babu’s (short of Chandrababu) time.”

TDP may have excelled in online creativity for the ensuing elections, but others too – including the Bharatiya Janata Party, the main opposition party at the national level, the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – have made special efforts to cross the information and communications technology frontier to reach out to voters.

Suddenly, in India’s general elections 2009 – which take place from late April to early May across the country – technology has emerged as one of the most significant tools for democratic politics, despite its demonstrated limitations in ensuring democracy.

While the BJP has found various channels for its poll mantra to grab voters’ mindshare – including television, radio, the Internet and short messaging services over mobile phones – the leftist parties, the other significant political force, are not too far behind.

Despite showing little enthusiasm for computerization until recently, by launching their election website for the first time ever, the left has shown a clear preference for cyberspace-enabled propaganda for their election strategy of 2009.

“Considering that 54 percent of voters are youths, our objective is to reach out to this section,” CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury said at the time of their website launch. “The philosophy behind the website is to urge people to vote and telling the youth that politics decides their future.”

In India the use of technology in elections is not really a new phenomenon. In the previous general election of 2004, the BJP for the first time added text messaging to its radio and TV propaganda. So did the Congress Party, which now heads the current coalition government.

“The increasing use of IT in Indian elections is changing the focus of many campaigns,” says Ravi Singh, CEO and cofounder of ElectionMall Technologies based in Washington, D.C.

ElectionMall, a pioneer in providing Internet-based, non-partisan IT applications for elections and campaigns, was a major contributor to the IT-based election strategies of almost all the politicians in the last U.S. election. This unique company is also spearheading political technology in a number of countries including the European Union, Malaysia and Columbia, and India as well.

“Prior to these new approaches, a typical Indian campaign focused on getting the message out to the establishment from the ground by going door-to-door, organizing rallies and placing print advertisements. However, as a result of the new technologies, we now see Indian candidates have begun to streamline websites with social media networking, volunteer recruitment and online advertisement throughout various search engines,” says Singh

Singh adds that India’s elections and political processes have awakened to the need to appeal to younger urban voters, who have a natural inclination toward new technology and its innovations.

“Much like the United States, India has also seen a huge growth in the number of interested, well-informed youth voters,” says Singh.

An estimated 100 million Indians will be eligible to vote for the first time this year, having reached the age of 18. This age group’s penchant for cell phones and the Internet provides a great opportunity for technology-based campaigning.

“Generally few urban Indians, in particular, like to get involved in politics; the rural population is far more active there,” says Suman R., outreach coordinator of the Janaagraha Center for Citizenship and Democracy, a Bangalore-based not-for-profit institution that started in 2001 to encourage people's participation in public governance.

“But interestingly, what we have seen is that when the political process is turned into an e-module, there are many who want to be a part of it. That’s why political parties in India are so keen to use information technology now,” says Suman.

“Moreover, after the Mumbai (terror attack) incident, people have become scared to participate in political events like attending meetings and rallies, which carry a high risk of terror attacks,” he adds.

So is security concern a big driver of the new IT culture in Indian politics? Yes, say experts, but there are others as well.

“A big reason why political organizations at every level in many countries are adopting IT is that it makes creation of content, advocacy and dissemination of information a more efficient process. It is also creating new opportunities for getting a message across in a distributed fashion,” says Stuart Shulman, an international political expert and editor-in-chief of Journal of Information Technology and Politics, a publication of the American Political Science Association.

According to Shulman, the latest Web 2.0 platforms like YouTube and blog sites that allow users to create rather than just receive political news, help people identify outstanding or important elements within the overload of political news. “That is one of the key changes that IT is bringing into the new political culture,” he says.

It is also cost effective. “A candidate who uses IT in his or her campaign cuts down expenses due to the ability to reach many more people efficiently. As a result, the candidate can spend more time with voters, and less time worrying about whether or not the potential voters can easily access information about the candidate,” says Singh.

“Political technology also fosters an environment where transparency thrives between voters and candidates. eDemocracy facilitates an exchange of viewpoints, all of which provide crucial contributions to the campaign process,” he says.

This is why, says Shulman, IT will increasingly play a dominant role in politics across the world, not only in democracies like India or the United States, but also in countries like China, where people are increasingly expressing themselves online and in text messaging.

“Politicians around the world have realized that when they allow citizens to express their opinions, it goes to show they are serious about hearing them and that goes some measure toward relieving potential unrest and tension,” says Shulman. “So it is a safety valve for both a democracy and a country that is less democratic than others.”