Blazing the trail is CPI-M candidate from the Calcutta North East Lok Sabha seat Mohammed Salim. In a unique move, Salim has launched his own window on the web at the `Bengal-on-net' site which gives the voter an insight into the candidate's "credentials".

Salim, pitted against two heavyweights -- Trinamool Congress' Ajit Panja, who is seeking re-election from the seat, and former West Bengal chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray of Congress -- is aiming at the upwardly mobile groups through this venture.

"By exploring the cybermedia, I want to reach to the people surfing the web," he said while campaigning.

While Panja's Marxist rival has himself launched his own profile on the net, the former Union minister's own party has joined the Internet bandwagon in a big way this time.

The Trinamool website, besides featuring 29 Lok Sabha candidates, also contains itsmanifesto besides TC's evolution, organisational overview, constitution and TC's `achievement' for Bengal in the 13 months of Prime Minister Vajpayee's rule.

Aimed at converting potential supporters to its side, the Trinamool site claims success in getting A-1 status for Calcutta and promises Bengal's development if Vajpayee returns to power.

Party chairperson Mamata Banerjee continues her diatribe against the Jyoti Basu-led Left Front government and the Congress on the net.

Development has come to a standstill and employment opportunities for youth have dried up in the 22 years of Basu "misrule", she said in an interview featured on indiainfo.com site on the Internet.

The site, besides Mamata interview, also contains a gist of the manifestoes of various political parties and a profile of Mamata and all other MPs.

While the Congress central leadership has hosted its own website on the net, the PCC has not launched any Bengal-specific site on the net.

"Our soniagandhionline.com is getting goodresponses from netizens who want to have a word with Sonia," a PCC spokesman said.

The indiancongress.org site has all the poll-related information on the net. The state BJP is also banking on its site BJP.Org hosted by the party at the national level to disseminate poll information. The CPI-M would be spending an estimated Rs 1 crore to undertake a TV-internet campaign for the polls.

CPI-M's 18-Episode `Ei Samay' programme as also the party's website on the net would deal issues like Kargil conflict, the "achievements of the Left Front government in last 22 years", the evil designs of BJP and Hindutva forces etc, a party spokesman said.

The current affairs programme, while inviting Congress leaders to air their views, would exclude TC-BJP, state home (police) minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was quoted as saying recently.