New Delhi: The Election Commission has signed 233 Memorandums of Understanding with 1,017 corporate houses in Gujarat to track and publish the names of those who do not vote in the upcoming assembly election, Indian Express has reported.The report quotes Gujarat Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) P. Bharathi who told the newspaper that the EC will monitor, for the first time, “electoral participation of the workforce” of these 1,017 units.The EC has plans to rope in more bodies in this monitoring exercise, Bharathi said.The EC is yet to announce dates for the elections to the Gujarat assembly.In June 2022, Indian Express had reported that the EC had asked Union and state governments, public sector units and corporate entities with over 500 employees to track employees who avail themselves of leave on polling day but do not vote.Paid holidays are granted to employees who are registered voters on voting day under the Representation of the People Act.Now, Bharathi said, the tracking exercise will be expanded to “industries employing 100 or more workers in Gujarat.” In these organisations, human resources personnel will become nodal officers who will make a list of employees who do not vote and publish the list on company websites or notice boards.Voting is not compulsory in India.In fact, in August 2022, the Union government itself said in the Lok Sabha that compulsory voting by citizens was an “impractical idea”. It added that voting was a right and not a compulsory duty, according to The Hindu.Minister of State for Law and Justice S.P. Singh Baghel also said that the idea of compulsory voting is against principles of democracy, according to an Express report on parliament proceedings.