Andhra Pradesh BJP General Secretary S. Vishnu Vardhan Reddy on Saturday urged State Election Commissioner (SEC) Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar to immediately clear the misgivings surrounding a mobile application allegedly being used for the coming panchayat elections.
“It is the responsibility of the SEC to publicly inform the truth about the app,” said Reddy.
He said some sections of people are already alleging that this app was developed by one political party. Reddy urged Kumar to end the controversy over the app and questioned the need to allegedly maintain stealth on this issue.
He asked if the app is under review or has already been made.
“Similar to the Election Commission of India (ECI), will you consider the complaints forwarded to this app? Generally, these kinds of technical systems will be under the Central government’s purview under the National Informatics Centre or the IT wing of the state government,” he said.
The BJP leader also asked who made this app?
On Friday, the ruling YSR Congress Party had requested Kumar to choose an app developed by the ECI and not any alleged private app to monitor the panchayat polls.
YSRCP General Secretary Lella Appi Reddy alleged that Kumar had disclosed about an app developed by the state election commission during a video conference with the district collectors which has been notified for use in the election process.
Reddy reminded that the state government app, Nigha, already exists for this purpose while there were no details of the private app developed by the commission in the public domain.
Noting that the creation of a new app in the current circumstances is objectionable, he said that bringing up such an app involves invitation of tender, collection of details like the name of the company, design, creation, hosting server, data accuracy, resolution mechanism and approval from the state machinery.
Reddy said the exercise of creating a new app at a time when the election process has already commenced is suspicious and lacks transparency.
According to Reddy, the state election commission does not have the technical resources of its own to develop an app.
He also said that if the election commission is so keen on using an app, it could have chosen the Central alternative, CVIGIL, to the state app Nigha.
