MP elections: Rate your MLA before you vote

A recently launched web portal ‘I for India’ will allow you to express your views and make a choice much ahead of the elections. You could even rate the chief minister.

Updated on: Sep 30, 2013, 16:58:30 IST

Hindustan Times | By Neeraj Santoshi, Bhopal

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You don’t have to wait for once-in-five-year elections anymore to express your anger against or appreciation of the performance of your MLA. Or, for that matter you could even rate the chief minister. A recently launched web portal ‘I for India’ will allow you to express your views and make a choice much ahead of the elections.

Facebook users in MP have been getting pop-ups on their pages titled ‘Report Card Madhya Pradesh’. When you click this link, it takes you directly to a state-specific page of the ‘I for India’ web portal, where you can rate MLAs and even the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.

Carrying the catch-line ‘Your 5 minutes can shape India’s next 5 years’, the portal was launched on August 28 by two Mumbai-based youths --- Ankur Garg (31) and Tarun Jain (28).

The aim was to allow voters to assess the quality of services provided by their elected representatives and the portal would automatically generate a report card. “Citizens are not absolved of their duties once they are done with voting. Democracy involves a continuous and active participation in the democratic process,” the makers of the platform say.

The creators of the website have also taken care to ensure that politicians or their supporters don’t end up shortcircuiting the responses by repeatedly rating their bosses positively. The portal’s security includes a mobile number authentication and fraud check algorithms.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neeraj Santoshi
Neeraj Santoshi is the Chief of Bureau for Hindustan Times in Uttarakhand, where he leads the state reporting team while covering government, politics, environment, wildlife, Uttarakhand High Court, and issues shaping the Himalayan region. With more than two decades in journalism across conflict zones, he has covered politically sensitive regions and environmentally fragile landscapes, and focused on stories that combine public interest with in-depth storytelling. An alumnus of Pune University with a Master’s in Communication Studies, he has reported extensively from Jammu & Kashmir (2003-2010), Madhya Pradesh (2010 to 2018 ) and Uttarakhand (Since 2018), covering subjects ranging from insurgency, elections and governance to wildlife conservation, mining, climate change, agriculture, human rights and social justice. He has covered politics and legislative assemblies of both Jammu & Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh over more than a decade. Before taking over as Chief of Bureau in Uttarakhand, he served as Special Correspondent with Hindustan Times in Madhya Pradesh and earlier reported for both Hindustan Times and The Indian Express in Jammu & Kashmir, where he covered state politics, environment and insurgency-related developments. Over the years, his stories have focused on environmental degradation, wildlife, illegal mining, governance and the changing social fabric of Himalayan states and Central India. He is particularly interested in long-form explanatory journalism, and stories that explore the intersection of ecology, conservation, governance and society. Outside the newsroom, Neeraj enjoys reading widely on neuroscience, consciousness studies, Artificial Intelligence and quantum physics, with a special interest in Kashmiri Tantric Shaivist traditions. He is also passionate about wildlife, mountaineering and the Himalayas, interests that continue to inform his reporting and deepen his understanding of the region he covers.Read More

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