Bengaluru: Can startups help in ensuring fair elections? Karnataka’s IT Minister Priyank Kharge seems to think so.

In the midst of accusations by some political parties over tampering of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in the recent state elections, Kharge took to Twitter on March 22 to suggest to the Election Commission that startups should be allowed “to have a crack at it.”

“With all the speculations rife over EVMs being tampered with, EC should allow Bengaluru startups to have a crack at it to check if it is possible,” Kharge tweeted.

Kharge’s Congress party, which suffered a massive defeat in the Uttar Pradesh elections recently, had asked the EC to probe charges of EVM tampering, which were first raised by BSP leader Mayawati and followed by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Kharge’s suggestion, however, could also be based on his close collaboration with tech startups in Bengaluru, the Silicon Valley of India. Kharge’s IT, BT and tourism ministries are closely working with several startups and the Karnataka government has laid out several funds and schemes to boost startups in the state.

Kharge’s tweet on  attracted a lot of comments. One person asked in a comment to his tweet whether common citizens should then be allowed to investigate corruption cases against politicians. Kharge replied saying “you can always get all the details from RTI”.

Another user said, “being IT minister you also don’t speak like others sir you doing good job but statements like this”, to which Kharge said – “Doubt is clearly a value in science. It is important to doubt & that the doubt is not a fearful thing,but thing of great value.”

Source: Economic Times