L K Advani, BJP’s “prime minister-in waiting”'s footprints all over the cyberspace is the outcome of a juggernaut internet campaign, aggressively promoted by Prodyut Bora, a ’99 batch passout from IIM, Ahmedabad. The “only IIM-A guy to join full-time politics”, he is the national convenor of BJP’s information technology cell, the party’s newest organisational unit. Bora was also voted among the top 100 CIOs of the country in 2008 for path-breaking IT initiatives. He is the brain behind www.lkadvani.in and blog.lkadvani.in, which help millions of people connect with the leader. “Advaniji may not respond to every query. But he reads everything posted on the site. He asks for page-views and the hits too sometimes,” he says. “As I talk to you right now, Advaniji’s website has registered 60,000 page views,” he adds. But isn’t that lesser than Modi’s, we ask tongue in cheek. “Since I do not know the number, I cannot comment on that,” he silences us. The unassuming 34-year-old says the two years spent at IIM-A have helped him a great deal, “not in my choice of career, but in structured thinking”. The cyber promoter of Advani, a Lok Sabha candidate from Gandhinagar, is close to signing a marketing deal with Google, world’s leading search engine. “Politics was never a concern area initially. It was after the corporate stint that my circle of concern moved beyond family and job to societal development,” he says. “The management lessons learnt at the institute have definitely shaped my ideas and thought processes. I am still in touch with some of my friends there,” he says adding, “I can never forget the days spent at IIM-A particularly because here is where I met Anu, who is now my wife.” He, however, does not see himself as a role model for the creme de la creme of the IIM-A. “I am just a lucky guy who happened to pass out from IIM-A. But politics needs capable youngsters,” is his bit. He began his post-MBA career as a management consultant with Hewitt Associates and went on to become the vice president (business development) of Digital Talkies, the country’s first filmmaking company. Later, he incubated a software company and ran it for six years before joining politics. Talking like a pucca politician, he briefs us about “my party’s agenda”. BJP’s IT cell, he says, has three mandates — automating party offices, attracting IT professionals to the party and advising the party on IT and e-governance issues. “For aeons now, only the legal profession has been inclined to politics in India. We have lot of IT professionals in the country who do not have a connect with politics. They are interested in procuring a visa and settling in US. We want to attract them. IT is also part of infrastructure, development of which is foremost on BJP’s agenda,” he says. But when internet is accessed by a miniscule netizens, how does he see his cyber campaign working? “More than 60 per cent of all net users are in and around eight big cities. They constitute 50 Lok Sabha seats. More than a 100 million first-time voters use the internet. Are these numbers insignificant?” he asks. There has been talk about similarity of Advani’s cyber campaign with that of Obama’s in the media. But Bora rubbishes it. “We are definitely inspired by the way he reached out to the Americans and planned events using his website. But that is not possible here. Also, in the US, every individual has an email identity. You cannot expect such a massive internet penetration in India yet,” he says. Rolling out a WAN (wide area network) to cover all state headquarters and starting a digital library are on the list of priorities of the IT cell. Any lessons learnt from the much-criticised India Shining campaign? “Every failure and success teach you a lot. We have learnt our lessons well and you’ll find that out soon”. Ask the IIMite what his future plans are and he comes up with an impressive cliche, the mark of a seasoned politician: “I will go wherever my party takes me.”