One of the cyber-campaign managers on the streets

New Delhi, May 3: Sunday was the BJP backroom boys’ day out, and the first-hand feel of the rough and tumble of “real” electioneering left them thrilled.

Around 40 cyber-campaign managers stepped out of their digital world at the party war room, 26 Tughlaq Crescent, and onto Delhi’s streets. Led by their boss and L.K. Advani’s speechwriter Sudheendra Kulkarni, they roamed around the slums, markets and colonies.

Their mission: to find out if there was a disconnect between the strategy makers and the voters, and to assess if their Internet sermons were going waste on the streets.

“It was a great experience since we had never stepped out of Tughlaq Crescent. It was an eye-opener,” said Harsh. “We were meeting a different kind of audience but the message was the same. We had to tell them what Advaniji had to offer them.”

Harsh, who had left his Citibank job in Singapore to do an MBA from IIM Calcutta, had completed his course in March and joined Advani’s team for a close view of electioneering in India. He got it today like never before.

The boys, who flaunt their status as “members of the L.K. Advani Communications Office”, interacted with slum-dwellers, traders, shoppers and rickshaw-pullers, not minding the scorching heat.

They returned to their office for lunch, which has become a great hit because of the vegetables grown within the compound, and left again in different directions.

“The shift from online to on-road is natural,” said IT cell head Prodyut Vora, Advani’s key portal manager along with Kulkarni.

“We have met all the objectives and targets we set ourselves before the election as far as our Internet operations are concerned. Only two more phases of the election are left and Delhi is going to the polls on May 7. We thought we should utilise all our energies to give the last push and so we hit the campaign trail.”

Advani too has been campaigning in Delhi for the last two evenings, making unusual promises. For instance, he has pledged there won’t be blasts in the markets any more if the BJP comes to power.

The party has released a separate mini-manifesto for Delhi, promising to provide every citizen with a multipurpose identity card, clean the Yamuna and boost the city’s infrastructure. These promises, however, had not helped the BJP in the Assembly elections five months ago.

The party hopes the absence of Sheila Dikshit — the Delhi middle classes’ darling — from the centre-stage of the general election will help it win a few seats in the capital.