Yechury to the Election Commission: Scrap the Memoranda of Understandings with Gujarati corporations
In an initiative to scrap the Memorandums of Understanding signed by the Gujarat chief electoral officer with corporate houses in the state, the CPI(M) has approached the Election Commission of India.
The CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury described the MoUs as a “coercive step towards compulsory voting” in a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar. In this regard, he referred to a report published by The Deccan Era. As a result, he called the EC’s move “outrageous”.
“As a fundamental right, enforcing the right to vote should not be delegated to corporations. Besides this, it involves corporations in the conduct of the elections against the backdrop of anonymous corporate funding through Electoral Bonds, which is already controversial,” he wrote. The Centre had informed the Supreme Court in 2015 that the introduction of compulsory voting would create an undemocratic environment in the country.
