40 volunteers drive NaMo’s online publicity drive in rally

“VoteforIndia and LBT are trending on twitter,” an elated man shouts out. Another person is continuously taking pictures and uploading them onto social media websites, while the other monitors the live stream to three websites.

“VoteforIndia and LBT are trending on twitter,” an elated man shouts out. Another person is continuously taking pictures and uploading them onto social media websites, while the other monitors the live stream to three websites.

They were part of the 40-odd IT cell team at Narendra Modi’s Mahagarjana rally in Mumbai on Sunday. Their job was to ensure that every word spoken by Modi reached out to people around the world in real time through the internet. Their online registration drive saw 25,000 people attend the rally.

Most of them are from Mumbai and Pune in the age groups of 20 to 40. They are techies armed with the best of gadgets — laptops, tablets, and smart phones — giving up their weekends to the “Modi cause” as they call it.

On Sunday, the team was at the BKC grounds, dividing themselves into groups that took care of live streams to BJP websites, Facebook posts, tweets and live video updates on YouTube.

“Most of us are not associated with the BJP. This was the first big rally that we managed technically. We will be managing the IT activity in Maharashtra for the next four months till the elections take place,” said Abhishek Dave, a business professional who is heading the team.

Dave added that the team meets one in a fortnight to work out logistics for other events. They have 800 volunteers who have registered online throughout Maharashtra for the IT cell.