Poll code violated? BBMP App will spot it

Bengaluru: A revised version of a mobile application developed by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to collect cases of model code of conduct violations during the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections will be rolled out nationally for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

The Election Commission of India (ECI), which announced cVIGIL (citizens vigil) in July 2018, is making it a key source of information for mode code violations. The app lets citizens send real-time photos and videos of violations with geo-location. The app, launched just a few days before the Assembly elections, did not get much attention. It had 780 downloads and only a few hundred complaints were filed through it.

“The app was launched during the Assembly elections on a pilot basis. Bengaluru was the testing ground owing to the technological advancement and the active citizenry here. After the election, we took the test case and feedback from users and submitted it to the ECI, which wanted to develop a similar app,” said an election official from the BBMP. The ECI has come out with an improved version, which allows a twoway process. “The Election Commission is guaranteeing citizens a response within 100 minutes. That is, a team of election officials (flying squad) will reach the spot from where the information came within 40 minutes of receiving the complaint. Within 100 minutes, a first information report will be filed and action-taken information shared with the complainant,” said Surya Sen AV, joint chief electoral officer.


To avoid false complaints — a significant percentage of complaints during the pilot run were false — the ECI has ensured that only live images and videos can be transmitted.

Election officials said they will promote cVIGIL mainly in Benga-luru. “It will be available the moment election dates are announced,” they said.

But activists are skeptical. “Culprits are not prosecuted in our system. Until prosecution happens, initiatives such as cVIGIL will be an eyewash,” activist Ravi Krishna Reddy, who has contested four polls, said.