COIMBATORE: While candidates are running behind voters to garner votes, three youths in Coimbatore designed a website named 'Know Your Candidate'. It will help voters make an informed choice at the polling booth.
The profiles, backgrounds, key contributions, cases, etc of the candidates from major political parties are available on the site with the domain tnvoters.in
The website has updated details of candidates from parties such as the DMK, AIADMK, TVK, and NTK. Currently, it covers key candidates in the 10 Assembly constituencies in Coimbatore district.
Entrepreneur L Gopinath told TNIE on what prompted him and his two partners to develop the website.
"When I spoke to a few people on the election in Coimbatore, they said people would vote for a particular party but admitted they did not know its candidates. I checked the internet, but proper details on the candidates were unavailable.
Only information on star candidates appeared on a few websites of mainstream media. As knowledge on the candidate is fundamental I decided to create a website so that voters can access details on the candidates of constituencies in Coimbatore," he explained.
He discussed with partners M Yasodharan and L Riktha and developed the website with useful information about the candidates.
"We created an option to explore constituencies by listing all the 10 Assembly constituencies. For each constituency, we added a 'View Candidates' option.
When voters select it, they can see the candidate's photo and other basic details such as their background, assets, and education, all featured on one page," he said.
"For instance, in the candidates' background section, we uploaded details about their family, occupation, and political history. In the key contributions area, we include their social work, party contributions, and more.
In the assets and cases columns, we list their assets and any criminal cases (based on affidavit details). We also update the candidates' social media and public presence," he said.
Riktha said that details are currently in English and will be available in Tamil in the future.
"We plan to extend the same concept to all the constituencies in the state by the next election. No we are promoting the website among voters in Coimbatore," she said.