The 15^th general elections held in the months of April and May this year will be remembered for various reasons, the notable being the way in which election campaigning was carried out by various parties. With over 700 million eligible voters and a majority of voters in the age group of 18-35 years, political parties leveraged the reach and power of the Internet to seek votes as well to raise awareness about voting during the elections, keeping in mind the media preferences of the youth.

In India, politics is generally considered to be a local affair as most of the people cast their votes on the basis of local and regional issues and very rarely consider national issues. As a result, the contestants involve in door- to-door canvassing, display hoardings and print advertisements in local language and take out election rallies. The recently held General Elections 2009 in India were undoubtedly the biggest democratic exercise in the worldan electorate of 714 million people voting for candidates from 1,000 political registered parties for 543 seats in the Lok Sabha. This election was different because a major chunk of voters were from what we call Gen Next, i.e., in the age group of 18 to 35 years. And interestingly, most of them were first-time voters. As such, the political parties also modified their electioneering activities.

In its 2004 general elections campaign, the BJP used the slogan "India Shining" hailing the successes of the Indian economy. The party engaged an advertising agency to manage this campaign. The campaign concentrated on first time urban voters. The party spent huge amounts to air its "India Shining" advertisements on all TV channels. The campaign also included newspaper ads and glossy posters. The party even allotted 5% of its budget for e-campaigns. The website of the party was revamped and text messages and pre-recorded voice clips were used to interact with the voters. During the election period, mails were sent to about 20 million e-mail users. Campaign-related mobile ringtones were also offered for download. Despite these promotional measures, the "India Shining" campaign did not prove to be advantageous to the BJP and the Sonia Gandhi led Congress party emerged victorious in the elections. Despite the failure of the campaign, it set a trend for election campaigning for the political parties: Spend 15% of the campaigning budget on television, 40-50% on print, 20% on outdoor, 5-10% on Internet and mobile and the remaining on radio and other on-ground activities.

Many changes have taken place in the country since the general elections in 2004, the major one being a change in the demographic profile of the electorate. More than half of the India's population is below 25 years old, 42 million voters have entered the electorate since 2004 and the importance of urban votes has increased. The mobile penetration has increased dramatically from 26 million in 2004 to 365 million and Internet penetration has increased from 16 to 80 million. The 26/11 terrorist attacks brought about a patriotic wave in the country and the young urban Indian voters were keen to step out to vote. As a result, for the first time in the general elections 2009, both the BJP and Congress targeted the young, vibrant and enthusiastic voters. India Inc. also made its contribution to the process by launching campaigns that were aimed at educating the people of the country about the importance of voting. Tata Tea's, Jaago Re Campaign was one such social awakening initiative.

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