With the significant penetration of mobile phones in the country, there can’t be a better platform for sensing the mood of the nation. And, this is what Pratham Mittal, a 27-year-old serial entrepreneur and Wharton graduate envisaged half year ago when he formally piloted a mobile application called Neta to rate the politicians during the February bypolls in Rajasthan’s Ajmer and Alwar constituencies. Later the app was also deployed in Karnataka ahead of the assembly elections in May.
Since then, a lot of development has happened and now the New Delhi based startup is all set to take its Neta app national ahead of crucial assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and 2019 general elections. According to media invite, Former President Pranab Mukherjee has agreed to be the Chief Guest at the launch and host it at his official Residence – 10 Rajaji Marg in New Delhi on August 24.
According to the company executives, the Neta App is a technology platform that lets voters rate/review their political representatives. It aims at fostering political accountability while serving as a barometer to gauge voter sentiment.
Overall platform is as simple as apps like Zomato or Uber that keep a check on the restaurants or driver by allowing the users to rate them. Neta app can also be used in a similar manner and act as a watchdog for politicians, possibly giving a sense to the general public and party high-command on how their representative is doing.
Something similar known as approval rating system is already prevalent in the U.S. The approval ratings are used to gauge public support for the president.
The votes in the Neta App are displayed in the style of a leaderboard. If users are particularly fond of a politician, he or she will be ranked on top. Neta app users can also change their votes if they feel that the politician is performing way below mark or if they have really made a change.
In addition, users can also have discussions and polls related to issues in their area on a different section in the app. According to the company, this not only allows for more feedback but also offers an insight into ground reality.
The app draws up a database of constituencies across the country and the politicians who are competing from those areas. Once a new user signs up, he or she will have to feed in their pin code to find their respective constituency and then vote for a politician.
So far, more than one lakh people have already downloaded this application from the Google Play Store.
