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Updated: Mar 02, 2020 03:45 IST

The Congress’s digital supporter network, or Shakti, which had little impact during last Lok Sabha election, has returned, albeit, in a new avatar. And this time, it is being used as an artificial intelligence (AI)-based app to mop up new members for the party.

The pilot project of the app, called Shakti 2.0 in the party circle, has been devised by the Praveen Charavarthy-led AICC technology and data cell. According to a senior Congress leader, who is closely involved in the project, the pilot was launched two months ago in two districts each in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.

The original Shakti was a network of Congress sympathisers and workers across the country. It became a talking point as the Congress used it extensively during the 2019 Lok Sabha election. It came handy for a variety of organisational jobs, including snap polls, to gauge candidates’ popularity, workers’ view on key issues and for inputs to election manifesto. Even, a survey was conducted on the app on whether the Congress should ally with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in last month’s Delhi election.

Shakti 2.0, which seeks to launch a fresh membership drive and not a renewal of existing ones, deviates from its earlier avatar’s all-purpose nature and also applications. For instance, the supporters can’t automatically enrol in the app as it will be manually controlled. “Only designated people — in this case from booth functionaries to the party’s district leaders —will go to a potential supporter and fill in his name, voter identity, photograph and other details in the app. Then, the details will be transferred to the technology and data cell where an AI-based programme will verify their authenticity. The name will also be matched with the voter id number. The person will be enrolled as a member after the verification process proves satisfactory,” said the leader.

If the candidature is approved, the new member will get a copy of his party card through a downloadable link in his mobile . The sleek membership card, seen by HT, is digitally signed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and can be printed just like an aadhaar card. In the pilot phase, there are 554 “active enrollers” of party leaders who are allowed to enrol members. As on last Friday, the number of new enrolments stood at 40,000—a stark reminder of how the new system is just a pale shadow of the original Shakti, which crossed over 50 lakh volunteers in the run up to the last Lok Sabha election.

The senior leader said: “The state-wise enrolment through Shakti 2.0 will start in Gujarat from the first week of March.”

After the Congress’s drubbing in the last Lok Sabha election, the data analytics department, which is the brain behind Shakti, was re-designated as the “AICC technology and data cell within the organisation”, in what many saw as a downgrade from its independent status.

The membership drive is crucial as the Congress is gearing up for an organisational election as Sonia Gandhi is leading the party as its temporary president.