Claiming that it is the right of political parties to announce poll manifestos, the Congress, BJP and Left parties are on a common platform in opposing the EC move in the wake of the Supreme Court judgement asking the EC to frame guidelines on poll manifestos to regulate freebies.
The EC wishes to formulate a clear policy on defining freebies announced by parties ahead of elections and has studied practices adopted by different nations in this regard.
The Commission has felt that offering of freebies by parties ahead of polls disturbs the level playing field and may vitiate the atmosphere.
The Supreme Court while disposing of a special leave petition on July 5, challenging the freebies announced by the Tamil Nadu government, had asked the Commission to frame guidelines about such promises announced by political parties in their manifestos.
Except for BSP, all major national political parties were unanimous in their views that there should not be any restriction on them in formulating their election manifesto and therefore there should not be any regulation on this count.
The BSP said that there should be a ban on announcing freebies by parties ahead of polls as they disturb the level-playing field, as voters can be lured by such promises of allurements, which may not be implemented later.