The website www.mycountrymylife.com — it’s on Advani’s autobiography — got one lakh “page views” within 24 hours of its launch last week, say his media managers. One “hit” translates into multiple “page views” but the BJP IT cell is ecstatic.

“Leading websites across the world get up to one million hits a month. So we’re not doing badly,” says BJP IT cell chief Pradyut Bora. Data collated by the cell shows that the youth form the chunk of the 250 million Net users in the country.

The website, however, is only the beginning of a makeover that the NDA’s prime ministerial candidate is set to get. Advani will soon have an interactive website — he may also chat everyday. The site will have dedicated Indian language sections and the book site will then become its appendage.

Advani told The Indian Express: “Many people were surprised when I requisitioned the services of an advertisement agency for election-related work way back in 1970s. Technology is important in the evolution of a political party. The last quarter century has seen the maximum number of inventions with the Internet being perhaps the most important one.”

Little surprise then, that, the team working on the project is mighty impressed by Barack Obama’s website. Visitors to BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar’s 26 Tughlak Crescent residence are often given a lowdown on the Democrat’s website barackobama.com.

“I’ve not seen the website, but the team does talk about it,” admits Advani. Some 25 laptops have been installed for his makeover project at Ananth Kumar’s home that Advani calls an “extension of his office”.

While a section within the party has been whispering about “a parallel office” and “promotion of a personality cult”, Advani brushes aside the charge. “It’s an extension of my office. Whether it’s the unveiling of the site or other events, the 11, Ashoka Road BJP office alone is the centre.”

Sudheendra Kulkarni, described as “a close friend and colleague” by the BJP leader in his book, conceived the project. Others in his team include Bora, research scholar Zorawar Daulet Singh and a few journalists working with RSS publications. Bora is an IIM alumnus while Singh majored in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University. They also worked on Advani’s autobiography where they find mention.

The 11 Ashoka Road party office, made IT-friendly recently with multiple wi-fi points, will soon be connected to Advani’s residence (and the Tughlak Crescent “extension office”), Rajnath Singh’s residence and all state party offices by ten-digit hotline numbers (modelled on the Government three-digit telephone numbers).

Top party guns have already been given official IDs and partymen will be encouraged to communicate with them directly.

Recalls Advani: “When I first used a digital diary during the party’s ‘89 Bombay session, a newspaper ran my picture with a slug - ‘Swadeshi, Mr Advani?’ See how things have changed now.”

The BJP is aware how Rahul Gandhi ran a laptop-poll campaign in UP, complete with constituency profiles at the click of a mouse. Internet is a big enabling tool at Rahul’s 12 Tughlak Lane office.

Rahul answers his emails himself. Aides Kanishka Singh and Sachin Rao blend IT with management tools; his press releases are managed by website pressbrief.in, run by Sachin and an ex-DD News professional. Congress beat reporters are asked to join his Orkut community and Rahul is always in touch with Sam Pitroda. Bangalore-based entrepreneur Anand Adkoli, son-in-law of Veerappa Moily, has helped devise a software for the Youth Congress membership drive.