Type M,and the names of all voters whose name begins with the alpahabet in a constituency flash on the screen with full details including age,voter ID number,booth number,booth and residence address. Write Man,and you get results like Manisha,Manpreet,Mangi,Mannu,Raman and Arman,etc. Nagpur-based supplier of election material,Purushottam Thakre,is among the select techies in Maharashtra to have developed a software that charts the electoral horoscope of voters in a constituency. Main Banunga Vidhayakin Hindi,Me Bannar Amdaar in Marathi,goes the software. Besides names,the search engine can also be used for other details like age,locality,booth,family,surnames,etc. So type 24,and all voters of this age will flash. Or type Rajnikanth,and you get all Rajnikanths in the constituency. The software costs Rs 25,000 for each constituency and Thakre claims to have already received a few orders. On his computer screen flashes the software page of Rajnandgaon,Chief Minister Raman Singhs constituency. Thakre first sold his app during municipal polls in Nagpur,Chandrapur and Bhandara and was in Gujarat for the 2012 Assembly polls,before reaching Meghalaya and Karnataka for elections this year. He is currently working from a rented office in Raipur,while some of his staff is in Madhya Pradesh for elections there. I was in the business of selling election-related material like banners,flags and caps. Around five years ago I developed this software and experimented with local bodies in Nagpur and neighbouring districts. As politicians found it very useful,I decided to explore bigger elections and conducted a survey in Gujarat. I was stationed there during Assembly elections last year, he says. He claims to have sold it to around 50 candidates during the Gujarat polls. But he is hesitant to disclose their names. What if they have not put it in their election expenditure? he asks. But arent these voter details already on the Election Commission website? Thakre explains that it is not easy to locate a particular voter in the EC list as one has to go through over a lakh names scattered across several pages. Here everything is on your keyboard,with all details. Type any alphabet and you get it, he says,noting that he has also developed an Android version to be downloaded on any smartphone. He,however,admits that he is not the first one to have developed the software. Two techies from Pune and one from Mumbai have already accomplished it. I dont think there is anyone else except us in India to have developed this software, he says. The other three,at present,are doing the same business in other poll-bound states like Rajasthan and MP. Pagariya Complex,a prominent commercial place,where his office is located also houses several other poll-material sellers. For now,the Chhattisgarh merchants curiously watch as an outsider from Maharashtra has come to their town with a product they never thought of. Yahan nahi chalega,koi nahi lega, whispers one. Thakres staff admits that it may take some time for this software to become popular in a state like Chhattisgarh where the reach of Internet is limited. They are hopeful,though. The poll season has just begun.
