LS polls: TDP to use IVRS to allow party workers to choose candidates

Hyderabad: Tech-savvy Telugu Desam Party, which initiated many pioneering information technology-driven activities in the party, is set to launch another novel exercise to select candidates for contesting the ensuing elections to state Assembly and Lok Sabha.  For the first time in the country, the TDP is introducing an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) to enable party workers and also general voters to select a candidate of their choice to contest from a particular constituency. The choice has to be made from among three names that will be listed by the party. Interestingly, the TDP would also give a none of the above (NOTA) option to its party workers and general voters. “This is akin to the primaries system followed in the USA. We are the first party in the country to introduce IVRS to select contesting candidates,” TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu announced on Tuesday night. The candidate who secures a majority of votes would be fielded by the party during the election. The system would be used even in Kuppam which happens to be Chandrababu Naidu’s Assembly constituency. “This is basically to get the pulse of the people and party workers about whom they wish to elect as their representative and bring the TDP back to power both in Telangana and Seemandhra regions,” Naidu said. He said the TDP would soon launch its activities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands where there are a sizeable number of Telugu people. Currently, the party has a unit in the islands. PTI