Telangana polls: Congress launches AI-based CHARMS app to track real-time trends, connect workers; all you need to know

Ahead of the Telangana Assembly elections, the Congress on Thursday announced a new Artificial Intelligence-based communication programme called CHARMS (Congress Human Resources Management System), as a means to connect with party workers in the state. [caption id=“attachment_5573661” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. News18[/caption] The app was developed by Kalakunta Madan Mohan Rao, chairman of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) information technology (IT) cell. The idea behind the app was to build bridges between party leadership and the workers, study feedback from the booth level and increase the level of percolation of party policy, Telangana Today quoted Rao as saying. The app’s developers are aiming to involve as many as 80,000 Congress leaders in Telangana and booth level workers in the system, The Hans India reported. According to a report from Live Mint, party leaders can feed data into the app in real time to churn numbers and manage its workers, right from the booth-level committees, for better management and efficiency. An automated system that uses machine learning will also read real-time trends on social media and send messages to party workers. Rao, who left the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and joined the Congress party in May this year, also told the news platform: “the CHARMS app, other than having a centralised location of a database that is accessible for leaders and office bearers, can also track elections live. Other features include live GPS tracking of party vehicles.” “No other political party has such a system in place. We will be able to leverage a centralised integrated communication system for the organisation,” he told Telangana Today. If the app proves successful in Telangana, it may even be turned into a nationwide initiative, CNN-News18 reported. The communication system was launched by TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, who said that it was developed to expose the failures of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government.