Elections for the Lok Sabha: A complaint has been filed against Flipkart and BigBasket for allegedly forcing employees to work on poll day

A complaint has been made against BigBasket, a Tata Group company, and e-commerce giant Flipkart for allegedly forcing delivery guys to work on April 19, the state’s election day. Lawyer K Narasimhan of the Chennai High Court claimed in a complaint submitted on Wednesday to the Tamil Nadu state election commissioner, B Kothi Nirmalasamy, that Flipkart and BigBasket would guarantee delivery of orders even on election day, even though the state government had declared a leave of absence for April 19.

According to Narasimhan, in order to make the election process easier, April 19 has been formally designated a public holiday under Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act of 1881. In order to guarantee their participation in the democratic process, he added, the Labour Welfare and Skill Development Department of Tamil Nadu has mandated a paid vacation for all workers working in stores, commercial businesses, industrial facilities, and IT firms on April 19.

We’ve seen that, in spite of the instructions, online delivery businesses like Flipkart and Big Basket are still promising delivery on April 19. This raises grave concerns about the rights of delivery professionals being violated, especially those who are essential to these platforms’ functioning, the lawsuit said. The complaint has requested that the statements made by e-commerce companies about assured delivery on election day be looked into and that necessary action be taken to protect the democratic rights of all workers, regardless of where they are from.

Flipkart said that only qualified workers are receiving paid vacations when approached by PTI. “At the Flipkart group, we’re giving all qualified workers a paid vacation to exercise their franchise, and we’re adhering to all the instructions and recommendations supplied by the authorities for voting day. A Flipkart representative said, “We have also taken action to raise awareness and motivate staff to vote.

Polling for the first phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections began on Friday, spanning 102 seats across 21 states and Union territories. Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Sarbanada Sonowal, and Bhupendra Yadav, Congressman Gaurav Gogoi, Kanimozhi of the DMK, and BJP member K Annamalai are among those involved.

Sikkim (32 seats) and Arunachal Pradesh (60 seats) will also hold assembly elections at the same time.

The polls close at 6 p.m. on Saturday. More than 16.63 crore voters will exercise their right to vote at the 1.87 lakh polling places where the Election Commission has stationed nearly 18 lakh poll workers.

There are 8,4 crore male voters, 8.23 crore female voters, and 11,371 third-gender voters. A total of 35.67 lakh individuals are registered as first-time voters, in addition to 3.51 crore young voters within the 20-29 age bracket.

After suffering setbacks in the elections of 2014 and 2019, the members of the opposition INDIA alliance are looking for a comeback, while the BJP-dominated NDA, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is aiming for a larger majority.

All 39 Tamil Nadu seats, five Uttarakhand seats, two Arunachal Pradesh seats, two Meghalaya seats, one Andaman and Nicobar Islands seat, one Mizoram seat, one Nagaland seat, one Puducherry seat, one Sikkim seat, and one Lakshadweep seat will all have polling.

Twelve seats in Rajasthan, eight in Uttar Pradesh, six in Madhya Pradesh, five in each of Assam and Maharashtra, four in Bihar, three in West Bengal, two in Manipur, and one in each of Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, and Chhattisgarh will also be up for vote.

The first round of campaigning concluded on Wednesday night.

In addition to Gadkari, Sonowal, and Yadav, the other contenders include two former chief ministers, Biplab Kumar Deb (Tripura) and Nabam Tuki (Arunachal Pradesh), as well as former Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, and six other Union ministers, Kiren Rijiju, Sanjeev Baliyan, Jitendra Singh, Arjun Ram Meghwal, L Murugan, and Nisith Pramanik.

Of these 102 seats, the UPA won 45 and the NDA won 41 in 2019. As part of the delimitation process, six of these seats have been redrawn.