Congress app gives 'Shakti' to party workers

NEW DELHI: Who should be the chief minister of Rajasthan? Is Rafale a potent political issue? Should Congress align with AAP? These might sound like highly political questions but over the months Congress has posed these to its grassroot workers in remote villages through an e-platform coordinated from a medium-sized porta cabin in AICC headquarters at 24 Akbar Road in the capital.

Aptly named Shakti or “power”, the platform has brought the corridors of power closer to the Congress workers. This is Congress’ internal app of sorts which has connected 65 lakh workers and counting. The Genesis:The idea for an e-platform to connect with the workers came around the time when Rahul Gandhi took over the reins of the party. Praveen Chakravarty, chairman of Congress’ Data Analytics department that spearheads Shakti, says, “Rahul ji gave a big hit at the plenary session in March 2018. He said that he wanted to break the walls between leaders and workers. He even used the word ‘Shakti’ a number of times then. He had already thought of this exercise and we were working on it.”

The workers were asked to register through SMS and their voter card and booth numbers. After they registered, they became registered Shakti members and the Congress had their unique data in its system.

The Power Test: Shakti has been used for connecting with workers. Chakravarty says, “Shakti is not an app. It is a platform. It is a closed platform meant only to connect with Congress workers and we know everything about the people who join it. We don’t want to sell any merchandise on it.”

Now, as the Central Election Committee sits to decide on candidates for Lok Sabha elections, workers’ choice expressed through Shakti forms a part of the discussions.

The Road Ahead: Congress does not feel that it needs a NaMo app or any open-to-public app. “You have Twitter and Facebook to connect with people,” says Chakravarty. But capitalising on the gains of Shakti is Congress’ internal app – GharGhar Congress app. Again, it is meant only for registered booth level workers. A GPS-enabled app, it maps a worker to his booth. Every day, the booth level workers fan out and go door-to-door. The app provides them with voter lists. They push the party’s message, which is tailor-made for the electorate of that constituency.