Netizens release report cards before poll dates

Hyderabad: Hours before the Election Commission of India (ECI) released its notification of election schedules on Sunday, social media users started putting up report cards of their MLAs and MPs.

It seems to have started from a Hyderabad resident and author, Mr Ratnakar Sadasyula, and spread across the country within no time. Users in hundreds of constituencies from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Telangana state started tweeting, even tagging the official handles of their representatives, so that they become be aware of their “progress”.

The report card records whether the legislators jumped parties, whether they have been attending to issues affecting ordinary people, and remarks on their general performance.

Such initiatives could help improve the performance of the people's representatives as it holds them accountable. No politician wants constituents to openly rate their performance as poor.

A meaningful engagement of the general public in politics is always important, says Mr Sadasyula, who set the ball rolling with a quiz on twitter asking the public about their representatives.

“People should at least have the basic knowledge of who their representative is and what they are capable of doing and what they have done in their constituencies, so that they can contact the MLAs and MPs directly in case of any problem,” he added.

Though some users are making good use of this opportunity to let their public representatives know what they think of their work, others are using the platform to promote their favourites with the party hashtags.

“More people should come forward and call out their representatives for the kind of work they do. Only then they will start working for the better,” says Ms K. Sunitha Rao. “Though it is the responsibility of the leaders to address our problems, we have to keep on begging them for their attention. This needs to stop and they should start addressing the issues on their own,” she said.