Known for its penchant for technology, BJP today became the first party in the country to start a system of teleconferencing between its headquarters and various state unit offices in a bid to hold interactive sessions on issues and party programmes.

BJP President Nitin Gadkari launched the teleconferencing facility at the party headquarters here when he held discussions with nine state unit offices simultaneously.

"If our office-bearers from say Assam have to come to Delhi for a meeting, it involves expenditure and time in travelling. We can save this through teleconferencing," Gadkari told reporters on the occasion.

The party plans to connect all state unit offices with the headquarters and also among themselves. Once this is done, the state units would take the initiative and get connected to the district units in a similar manner.

Gadkari rubbished apprehensions that this may lead to the BJP leaders losing touch with the workers on the ground.

"BJP believes in modernisation but is against westernisation. We can use this technology to hold meetings between leaders. Our farmers can also exchange notes. This technology will be very useful for us," he said, adding that today even the media had become "hi-tech" but it had not lost touch with the ground reality.

The BJP President further announced that soon an sms service for party workers would be started in which 25 Lakh members would know about programmes and plans at one go.

BJP Information Technology (IT) Cell convenor Arvind Gupta said the main opposition was also the first party to launch its website. He said this was a low-cost and secure means of conducting interactions. .