Welcome to a newly-wired India, where political parties are using text messages to send updates and leaders are sprucing up their pages on social networking sites in an effort to connect with the country's growing young and plugged-in generation.

The reasons are not hard to find: a booming economy that grew at about 9 per cent in the last three years encouraged rapid penetration of Internet and mobile phone ownership, giving politicians tools to connect with even far-flung areas.

'We have 100 million first-time voters in the age group 18-24, and they are all most likely connected via the Internet and mobile phones,' said Diptarup Chakraborti, a principal research analyst at Gartner consultancy.

Now, after a successful presidential campaign by a youthful, tech-savvy Barack Obama, as well as the Mumbai attacks last November, a groundswell of activism and political awareness among the youth is apparent, particularly in the cities.

Both Congress and the BJP's prime ministerial candidates are elderly, but that has not stopped the parties from reaching out to the youth, using text messages, campaign tunes and videos.

L.K. Advani, the iPhone-carrying, 81-year-old leader of Hindu nationalist BJP, has posted his own blog (http: blog.lkadvani.in).

BJP teams have made Youtube campaign videos and their election offices in New Delhi are packed with youngsters glued to computer screens to update campaign websites.

'There are emotional and functional reasons for using technology: functionally, it is more cost-effective and more participative than say, a rally or an advertisement,' said Kiran Khalap, co-founder of brand consultancy Chlorophyll. 'And emotionally, they want to be like the cool urban youth they want to connect with.' -- REUTERS