West Bengal assembly polls to see cyber participation

Trinamool ropes in Sabeer Bhatia for better internet campaign

PTI | March 15, 2011



Trinamool Congress has roped in IT wizard and co-founder of Hotmail, Sabeer Bhatia, to help the party campaign better in the cyber world for the upcoming West Bengal Assembly polls.

"Leaders can communicate with people through Internet and the more an organisation becomes cyber savvy, the more it can reach out to people," Bhatia said at a press conference held in the Trinamool Congress headquarters here.

Bhatia will help a 12-member Trinamool cyber team, which includes two IIM students.

Bhatia was asked to guide the party's cyber team by Derek O'Brien who is in charge of the Trinamool Congress' website.

Asked if it was a process to woo the youth, O'Brien said, "This is not a question of wooing the Generation X or Generation Y. We are trying to use the cyber technology to bridge the party and the people and later on obviously the government and the people."

Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee said that Bhatia's experience and inputs would help the party reach out to more people through the internet.

"We are also trying to develop a portal which will help the people speak to the Trinamool leaders directly," Chatterjee added.

On whether Bhatia will be working as a consultant to the party, O'Brien said, "Right now we have shared his wisdom and we have invited him to come after six months. We will try to use his wisdom and expertise for a better governance."

Bhatia also visited Mamata Banerjee's Kalighat residence and held a meeting where, apart from the Trinamool chief, Partha Chatterjee and Derek O'Brien were present.

Along with a partner, Bhatia founded Hotmail, the first free email service provider, in the early 1990s. Later in 1997, he sold Hotmail to software giant Microsoft.
 

Comments

 

Other News

BJP set to capture West Bengal

The political map of the country is set to be redrawn with the BJP set to win the West Bengal assembly elections, apart from Assam and the union territory of Puducherry. In Kerala, meanwhile, the Congress-led UDF is set to regain power. The filmstar Vijay-led TVK has emerged as the front-runner in Tamil Na

Beyond LPG: Is PNG ready for India’s next cooking fuel transition?

India, the second-largest importer and consumer of LPG after China, faces growing pressure due to supply constraints. Most of India`s LPG imports transit through the Strait of Hormuz, a focal point of global turmoil. Given that LPG forms the backbone of household kitchens and the restaurant industry, any s

Maharashtra adopts hybrid model for Census 2026 data collection

The government has initiated preparations for Census 2026 in Maharashtra, introducing a hybrid approach that combines optional self-enumeration with comprehensive door-to-door data collection to ensure complete coverage across the state.   According to senior officials, the Self-

What the nine Indian Nobel winners have in common

A Touch Of Genius: The Wisdom of India’s Nobel Laureates Edited by Rudrangshu Mukherjee Aleph Books, Rs 1499, 848 pages  

Income Tax dept holds Ghatkopar Outreach on new IT Act

The Income Tax Department organised an outreach programme in Ghatkopar, Mumbai, to raise awareness about the key features of the Income Tax Act, 2025, effective April 1, 2026. The initiative is part of a nationwide effort to promote taxpayer awareness, simplify compliance, and strengthen a transparent, eff

Making AI work where governance is closest to people

India’s next governance leap may not solely come from digitisation. It will come from making public systems more intelligent, more adaptive, and more responsive to the dynamics at the grassroots. That opportunity is especially significant at the panchayat level, where governance is not an abstract po


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter