Political circles are surprised at the way in which the Jagan Reddy Government hurriedly petitioned the High Court against the latest e-Watch app of the State Election Commission (SEC). When a deeper look is taken, then it has become clear how SEC Ramesh Kumar has greatly annoyed and embarrassed the ruling YCP Ministers and MLAs. Not just that, the latest app is also going to give a tough time to the police and all election officials with respect to election violations.

Two major irritants are found in this whole thing. The first one is regarding the secrecy of the complainant’s details. Anybody can file a complaint about a threat, kidnapping, etc without revealing their personal details. Usually, the Government departments would not accept such anonymous complaints. Being an autonomous institution, the SEC has preferred to maintain secrecy for encouraging the public to freely report any election malpractice.
The second issue is about the provisions in the app to keep a close watch on the action taken by the respondent officials who were on election duty. The SEC will directly monitor to check whether the police or the election officials concerned have responded to the complaint or not.

These checks and balances brought in by the SEC have undoubtedly embarrassed the YCP leaders, who are afraid that the official machinery may not cooperate fully like before because of the app.