The Election Commission of India’s revealed on Monday that since the announcement of the elections in the states of Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Telangana, it has made seizures of over Rs 1760 crores which is seven times the seizures made in the Assembly Elections in these states in 2018. EC had made seizures in these five states worth Rs 239.15 crore in 2018.
According to EC, Rs 372.9 cr in cash, liquor worth Rs 214.8 cr, Drugs worth 245.3 cr, Precious metal valued at Rs 371.2 cr and freebies and other items valued at Rs 556.02 cr have been seized as on 20th November 2023.
Telangana tops the list with Rs 659.2 cr while Rajasthan follows closely with 650.7 cr. Zero cash has been seized by the teams in the state of Mizoram.
The Election Commission of India informed that this election, it has embedded a technology into the monitoring process through the Election Expenditure Monitoring System (ESMS) which provides easy coordination at CEO & DEO level with multiple enforcement agencies involved in election expenditure monitoring process. EC further informed that 228 experienced officers from IRS, IC&CES, IRAS, IDAS and other Central Government Services have been deployed as Expenditure Observers in these five poll bound stated.
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For close monitoring, EC said that 194 Assembly Constituencies have been marked as Expenditure Sensitive Constituencies. Besides that, field level teams in the monitoring process and regular follow-ups with DEOs/SPs and enforcement agencies is done to deal with menace of money-power, EC informed. The efforts on close monitoring will further continue in the poll-going States till completion of the ongoing elections and the figures of seizure are expected to rise further, the statement said.
The Commission also reminded that the seizures in the states of in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura and Karnataka, where elections were conducted earlier this year, was 11 times of the previous assembly elections. Over Rs 1400 crores seizures were made in these states.
