Two engineering students from Kerala have become unlikely innovators in the state’s electoral machinery. The 20-year-olds Aashin C. Anil from Thiruvananthapuram and Jeswin Sunsi from Thrissur have developed EVM Track, a software system that will be used for the upcoming 2025 Kerala local body elections. The software will be used to monitor the movement and deployment of electronic voting machines. The boys are third-year Computer Science students in Chennai’s SRM Institute of Science and Technology. Earlier this week, the duo was felicitated by the State Election Commissioner for their contribution.
How will this software help Election Commission?
Until now, managing EVM allotment and movement was largely a manual process. Machines stored across warehouses had to be physically traced, documented and dispatched, often leading to delays, confusion and difficulty in replacing faulty units at short notice. With EVM Track, this process moves online.
Developed under the guidance of L Suryanarayana, the State Election Commission’s EVM consultant, the software allows officials to monitor each machine’s real-time status, its warehouse location, the constituency and polling booth it has been allotted to, whether it is stored in a strong room or if it has reached a counting centre.
“So far, we have been manually preparing the allotment of machines,” Suryanarayana explained. “With the new software, allotment has been made online. From the SEC office to a village panchayat’s returning officer, the movement and availability of each EVM can be tracked instantly,” he told the Indian Express.
He added that the programme ensures fast detection and replacement of faulty machines by identifying available spares online.
Student project turned public system
The idea of digitising EVM inventory was initially floated two years ago but shelved due to financial constraints. The project was revived six months ago, with Suryanarayana seeking young developers he had observed performing well in previous hackathons.
Despite their age, the Commission was confident in their technical abilities. “They took up the project as a form of social commitment,” Suryanarayana said. The SEC has since formalised an agreement with them.
Aashin said the pair was thrilled to contribute. “We are excited to be part of the election process even before we cast our vote. Our software will help track EVMs online throughout the polls,” he told IE. Aashin further said that he and Jeswin are part of Apple’s iOS student developer programme, in which SRM is a partner from India.
Jeswin, who spent much of his childhood in Oman, told Onmanorama that technology has been part of his life for as long as he can remember. “My father, Sunsi, is in the smartphone retail business. I’ve been learning coding since Class 6. It has truly been an honour to work on this project. It’s the result of months of hard work,” he said.
Aashin, meanwhile, took a very different route into tech. A Class 12 Biology student, he told Onmanorama that his interest in coding sparked during the COVID-19 lockdown. “I started learning on my own and chose BTech Computer Science. I met Jeswin here, and we became best friends. We plan to launch a startup after college,” he said.
First-of-its-kind initiative
According to the SEC, no other state in India has yet implemented an online, end-to-end EVM tracking system for a three-tier election process. As Kerala heads into its local body polls scheduled in two phases on December 9 and 11 across 14 districts, the software will play a critical role in enhancing transparency and operational efficiency.