Tech entrepreneur Siddharth Chakravarthy is also among those contesting Telangana Assembly elections from the prestigious Jubilee Hills constituency as an Independent candidate. But, unlike other high profile candidates, his campaigning style is markedly different.
In fact, he is attending to his children’s — four-and-a-half-year-old Yudhav and seven-month-old Yuga — needs, even as he interacts with voters on his laptop.
Yes, you heard it right! Mr. Chakravarthy has been using his own Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool ‘Vako.AI’ to directly be in touch with his constituency voters, having a dialogue with them to understand their needs, aspirations and expectations.
“Door-to-door campaigning is outdated now when technology is available. Our tool can be leveraged to reach out to everyone and also get instant feedback. This kind of interactive communication is not available even on social media. I tried to take this technology to almost all the political parties, and everyone showed interest but it stopped at that. However, I never got to showcase it to the top people,” he claimed.
Leveraging tech
Undeterred by parties’ reluctance, he decided to try it out himself and jump into the electoral fray on a lark. “Initially, it spooked my family and my friends. This is the only way I could have showed politicians how technology can be leveraged for elections and governance too. I am already getting a good traction,” the 36-year-old said.
His digital tool is similar to ChatGPT tech. “I have been working on this for the last eight months with elections on my mind, as there is a growing divide between politicians and common people. It is so difficult to reach out to your own MLA, forget about a Minister. This application can effectively deal with it,” he explained.
Mr. Chakravarthy’s courage stems from the fact that his last innovative tech start-up ‘StaTwig’ about creating value chain systems for efficiency in vaccine delivery has been pretty successful and bringing him fame and fortune.
A graduate from Vasavi College of Engineering here, he did his MS in United States and had worked at Silicon Valley (California) for tech firms, before returning home. His wife, Druthi, is also a technology entrepreneur having her own start-up.
In ‘Vako.AI’, voters can interact with a candidate through a scan code to log into Whatsapp chatbox and seek the particular contestant’s plan for the constituency, city and his development agenda. Candidates can discern what the voters want. It can be customised to navigate people’s grievances to the departments concerned, and towards job opportunities. Two lakh and more people can be reached simultaneously, he said.
“While I am getting good response, I am shocked that none of the contestants has a vision for Jubilee Hills, which could easily become another Beverly Hills. Technology is a cheap but powerful tool that can cut campaign costs and democratise elections. If it has ‘disrupted’ every field, why not in politics?” he questioned.
