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Congress' data platform to help select LS candidates

For the 2019 elections, the party's selection of candidates across the country will be influenced by the platform, which already has more than 5 crore party workers registered on it.

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In a bid to reach out to the last Congressman in every booth, the grand old party is preparing to take their inputs on the selection of candidates for the crucial Lok Sabha elections in 2019. And in this exercise, the party's top brass will be aided by the data analytics team's digital platform, Shakti.

For the 2019 elections, the party's selection of candidates across the country will be influenced by the platform, which already has more than 5 crore party workers registered on it. In the recently-held elections where the party won big, president Rahul Gandhi had asked workers to inform him of their choice of respective chief ministers on the platform.

In the coming months, the data analytics team, headed by former investment banker Praveen Chakravarty, plans to map all of the 10 lakh booths countrywide on the platform, with a caste break-up. Currently, the platform has village- and booth-level break ups in every Assembly and Lok Sabha constituency, with details of winning and losing candidates, and the Voter ID-linked data of workers registered in those areas.

A leader, part of the process, told DNA that said that while Shakti alone will decide on candidates, it will pass on crucial inputs. He added that what is unique in the interactive platform is that most workers are given an open-ended choice, ensuring objectivity.

The platform had helped mine voter data from constituencies in the recent round of Assembly elections, giving key insights. By bringing in booth-level data and feedback from over 15,000 booths that were displayed live in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh respectively, as well as 10,000 booths in Chhattisgarh, the platform complemented the work put in by candidates in these constituencies. These candidates were given 'dockets', which helped them focus on the booths to campaign intensively in and the issues to pick from.

In addition, booth-workers were asked to register voters on a GPS-linked app, that opened up when only the worker reached the booth. "For instance, in Madhya Pradesh, the loss of jobs due to demonetization was a huge factor. The team also had fair wind of the situation in Chhattisgarh days ahead, as there was objective evidence in front of us," said the leader.

The system is designed such that booth workers accrue points for their work, and those with consistently high numbers are awarded. When Gandhi asked workers to select their CM, it was only those with more than 1,000 points on the platform. The importance accorded to it has now led to a spurt in the number of enrollments.

For instance, in Karnataka, where the enrollments were as low as 29,000 before these elections, there are now over 12 lakh-odd workers registered as of December 31, 2018 in 42,542 booths, with an addition of over 40,000 workers per day. In neighbouring Telangana, there are 4.4 lakh registered workers in 75 per cent of the 28,819 booths.

However, the system has also seen some flaws. In the recently-held panchayat elections in Haryana, where the Congress failed to make much of a mark, the platformed favoured the use of symbols for the party.

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