India has more than 32 million internet users – the seventh biggest online audience in the world. So the Indian political parties have also gone online. They do not really need the internet to reach the vast majority of more than 700 million voters. Nevertheless, every major party seems to have its own website.
Here are snapshots of the websites of the key political parties.
The Indian National Congress. The party of outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, led by the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's widow, Sonia Gandhi. It won only145 of the 543 seats in parliament in the 2004 election. But that still made it the biggest party in the legislature. And it happened to be the leader of the United Progressive Alliance of parties which together controlled 263 seats in the House, which gave it a parliamentary majority—enough to form a government. (All figures from the BBC's A Guide To Indian Coalitions.)
The opposition Hindu nationalist Bharitya Janata Party whose leader, Lal Krishna Advani, wants to be the next prime. The BJP was in power from 1998 to 2004 when Atal Behari Vajpayee was prime minister and Advani his deputy. It lost the 2004 election when it won 138 seats, seven short of the Congress.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) held 43 seats but wielded disproportionate influence on the Congress government, which needed its support. The Marxists eventually withdrew their support in protest against the nuclear agreement Manmohan Singh signed with President Bush. Singh then made new alliances.
This time the Marxists are part of a Third Front opposing the Congress as well as the BJP. But with no clear winner expected in this election, Congress may still have to make a deal with the Marxists, according to analysts.
What gives the Marxists clout is their strength in the key states of West Bengal and Kerala. But they are losing ground in West Bengal and Kerala has always been a tossup between the Congress and the Marxists.
The Communist Party of India is the junior partner of the Marxists. It held just 10 seats. It supported the former Soviet Union while the Marxists are pro-Beijing.
The Trinamool Congress (Grassroots Congress) is the Marxists' bete noire, gaining strength in West Bengal, which has been ruled by the Marxists for three decades. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee. She has formed an alliance with the Congress.
The Bahujan Samaj Party. Another party led by a woman: Mayawati. She is the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and makes no secret of her ambition to be the next prime minister. The party had just 19 seats in parliament but is a key player in the Third Front because it controls Uttar Pradesh, India's biggest state.
The All-India Anna DMK or AIADMK. Also led by a woman: the Tamil former film star Jayalalitha. A power to reckon with in Tamil Nadu.
The Telugu Desam Party has its base in Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh and is part of the Third Front. Its leader, Chandra Babu Naidu, claims credit for the IT boom in Hyderabad. He was formerly chief of Andhra Pradesh.
The outgoing Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife, Rabri Devi, who is the chief minister of Bihar – India's most backward state – also have an online website. This is the "unofficial" website of their party, Rashtriya Janata Dal (National People's Party.)
