BJP poised to lose as many as 70-seats if LS elections held now: Neta app

Given India’s heterogeneity, even the best of polling agencies struggle to accurately predict election outcomes. However, the developers of the Neta app, launched by former president Pranab Mukherjee here on Friday, claim there “first of its kind technology platform” will be a game changer in Indian politics.

They claim the app, modelled on America’s approval ratings system, particularly Gallup, would not only enable voters rate and review their political representatives to foster greater accountability, but also be an accurate barometer of electorate sentiment. While Neta app was formally launched at the former president’s official residence here on Friday, it has been collecting data for the past eight months and claims to have had a strike rate of 92.7 per cent, based on 2.5 million responses, in predicting the Karnataka assembly polls in May.

Pratham Mittal, Neta app’s founder, said over 15 million verified voters have already rated or reviewed their local leaders across 543 parliamentary constituencies and 4120 assembly constituencies in the country.  Mittal, 27, who studied at Dehradun’s Doon School and University of Pennsylvania, finds it troubling that the electorate in India votes on caste and religious lines, rather on issues of development.

“The world’s largest democracy deserves a platform where we as voters can rate our politicians and question them. Neta aims to do just that. We are looking to have 100 million users on the platform before 2019 polls,” Mittal, who hails from a business family, said. The family runs the famous Lovely Sweets Shops in Jalandhar, and also the Lovely Professional University, where his Ashok Mittal is chancellor and mother Rashmi pro-chancellor.

If Neta app’s data is any guide, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is poised to lose as many as 70-seats if Lok Sabha elections were to be held now, and that is without factoring a Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance in Uttar Pradesh. According to the app, BJP is down to 212-seats from its 2014 tally of 282, while the Congress is up from 44-seats to 110-seats. "The trend in the last three months shows the Congress gaining, albeit gradually, while BJP losing ground," Neta app CEO Robbin Sharrma said.

In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, two of the four states going for assembly polls by November-end, the app has surveyed approximately 100 voters in each of the assembly constituencies. According to Sharrma, Congress party’s Ashok Gehlot remains the most popular leader in Rajasthan with 42.3 per cent approval ratings, followed by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje with 33.3 per cent and Congress party’s Sachin Pilot with 20.7 per cent approval ratings.

In Madhya Pradesh, Congress party’s Jyotiraditya Scindia has the highest approval ratings among the state’s leading politicians. If Scindia’s rating is 48.9 per cent, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s is at 42.6 per cent, Congress party’s Kamal Nath at a meagre 6.4 per cent and Digvijaya Singh at an abysmal 2.1 per cent.

Neta app is available on Android and iOS platforms, and can also be accessed through a website in 16 languages. Mittal says the app tries to factor in the social and economic heterogeneity of India by reaching out to rural areas by using multiple mediums like IVR calls, SMS and offline outreach with the help of Aashawadi and Aanganwadi workers.

Neta app isn’t Mittal’s first venture. In the US, he started Outgrow, a platform that enables polling on websites. Sharrma, who was earlier with election strategist Prashant Kishor, say the platform uses blockchain to put in place sufficient safeguards to protect data. The team also claims to weed out fake voters by cross verifying registered users with the help of electoral rolls, Aadhaar and apps like Truecaller.

The app will give list of top five contenders for a particular seat and voters can cast their online vote to indicate their preference, or rate the performance of their existing representative. It also claims to offer newcomers an opportunity with anyone interested in fighting an election can get featured on the app by gathering 1,000 votes from their constituency.

But at a time when the political class already has misgivings about other election related technological solutions, particularly the electronic voting machines, or EVMs, will Neta app survive allegations of leakage of data and perceived favouritism, especially as it is to be supported by money from corporate groups?