ECI cracks down on money power: Rs. 4650 crores seized so far

Sudhir Kumar / New Delhi

With General Elections 2024 underway, ECI is on track for the highest ever seizures of inducements recorded in the 75-year history of Lok Sabha elections in the country.

The Enforcement Agencies have made a record seizure of over four thousand 650 crore rupees before the first phase of polling for the 18th Lok Sabha elections commences on Friday. Election Commission has said, this marks a sharp increase over three thousand 475 crore rupees seized during the entire Lok Sabha election in 2019. The Commission said, 45 per cent of the seizures are of drugs and narcotics. It said, the seizures have been possible by comprehensive planning, scaled-up collaboration and unified deterrence action from agencies and proactive citizen participation. The Election Commission stated that one hundred crore rupees seizure was made each day since 1st March of this year.

The commission said, the enhanced seizures reflect Election Commission’s unwavering commitment to monitor inducements and curb electoral malpractices for a level playing field, particularly in favour of smaller and less resourceful parties. The seizures are a critical part of Election Commission resolve to conduct the Lok Sabha elections free of inducements and electoral malpractices and to ensure a level playing field. The commission has also taken strict action against 106 government servants who have been found assisting politicians in campaigning, thereby violating the Code of Conduct and instructions.

Use of black money, over and above political financing and accurate disclosure thereof, may disturb the level playing field in favour of more resourceful party or candidate in specific geographies. The seizures are a critical part of ECI resolve to conduct the Lok Sabha elections free of inducements and electoral malpractices and to ensure a level playing field. CEC Shri Rajiv Kumar, while announcing the polls last month, underlined Money Power as one of the ‘4M’ challenges. On 12^th April, Commission led by CEC Shri Rajiv Kumar along with ECs Shri Gyanesh Kumar and Shri Sukhbir Singh Sandhu reviewed all Central Observers deployed in Phase -1 of elections going to poll on 19^th April.  Tightening, monitoring and checking were amongst the focus of deliberations to ensure inducement-free electoral process.

The enhanced seizures reflect ECI’s unwavering commitment to monitor inducements and curb electoral malpractices for a ‘level playing field’, particularly in favour of smaller and less resourceful parties.

Annexure A- State/UT wise seizure details as on April 13, 2024

Election Seizure Management System
Date of Print: 13.04.2024 09:53 pmFilter Date: From 01-03-2024 To 13-04-2024
S.N	State	Cash (Rs. Crore)	Liquor Qty (Litres)	Liquor Value (Rs. Crore)	Drugs Value (Rs. Crore)	Precious Metal Value (Rs. Crore)	Freebies / Other Items Value (Rs.Crore)	Total (Rs. Crore)
1	Andaman And Nicobar Islands	0.2283950	3129.11	0.0744660	2.0127000	0.0000000	0.0000000	2.3155610
2	Andhra Pr.	32.1549530	1022756.48	19.7198350	4.0635400	57.1427590	12.8933650	125.9744520
3	Arunachal Pr.	6.4626890	157056.59	2.8799110	0.8182360	2.6378890	0.7295980	13.5283230
4	Assam	3.1780990	1594842.47	19.2702290	48.7692370	44.2246890	25.6795360	141.1217900
5	Bihar	6.7770240	845758.18	31.5729460	37.5943630	19.7613200	60.0628720	155.7685250
6	Chandigarh	0.9690950	29027.47	0.9157730	2.0751550	0.5269720	0.0000000	4.4869950
7	Chhattisgarh	11.9818310	55690.73	1.3978870	17.1809360	2.5824360	26.3291050	59.4721950
8	DD&DNH	0.3949850	8351.26	0.2149490	0.0000000	0.0000000	0.0000000	0.6099340
9	Goa	15.6452760	101446.04	2.3307540	3.2368700	3.7885940	1.1857350	26.1872290
10	Gujarat	6.5565420	760062.82	21.9468710	485.9946220	36.4879620	54.3495200	605.3355170
11	Haryana	3.8467740	191840.41	5.6527380	5.4925780	1.7325760	1.1865960	17.9112620
12	Himachal Pr.	0.2235760	355123.80	5.2488070	2.2543480	0.0335000	0.1547150	7.9149460
13	Jammu And Kashmir	1.2466890	23964.59	0.6300640	2.3529220	0.0025800	0.0559150	4.2881700
14	Jharkhand	4.2282350	158054.60	3.4131010	35.1123330	0.3980360	8.6841250	51.8358300
15	Karnataka	35.5380070	13052708.14	124.3380670	18.7566280	41.9368860	60.8632560	281.4328440
16	Kerala	10.9301610	49212.31	2.0053870	14.2861250	21.0896510	5.0468590	53.3581830
17	Ladakh	0.0000000	18.83	0.0011580	0.0000000	0.0000000	0.0000000	0.0011580
18	Lakshadweep	0.0000000	35.55	0.0181200	0.0556000	0.0000000	0.0000000	0.0737200
19	Madhya Pr.	13.3794000	1633114.94	25.7788940	25.8906670	8.7413820	38.4886970	112.2790400
20	Maharashtra	40.0560580	3556027.76	28.4656210	213.5643290	69.3837180	79.8780460	431.3477720
21	Manipur	0.0003530	36489.36	0.4067430	31.1167990	3.8523740	8.9337170	44.3099860
22	Meghalaya	0.5048930	42655.42	0.6695960	26.8558810	0.0000000	7.3595450	35.3899150
23	Mizoram	0.1119530	105488.00	3.7789580	37.1563530	0.0000000	5.8545950	46.9018590
24	Nagaland	0.0000000	26537.76	0.2617410	2.9973300	0.0000000	4.9314800	8.1905510
25	NCT OFDelhi	11.2862670	67046.55	1.4250850	189.9424280	32.2370250	1.1788900	236.0696950
26	Odisha	1.4750630	1324111.29	16.2141150	39.0155790	6.4600000	43.9682390	107.1329960
27	Puducherry	0.0000000	818.56	0.0173900	0.0000000	0.0000000	0.0000000	0.0173900
28	Punjab	5.1334400	2206988.94	14.4041880	280.8158050	10.5262050	0.9652680	311.8449060
29	Rajasthan	35.8561600	3798601.52	40.7857900	119.3799370	49.2176960	533.2869270	778.5265100
30	Sikkim	0.3015000	6145.30	0.1195790	0.0141580	0.0000000	0.0015000	0.4367370
31	Tamil Nadu	53.5886800	590297.33	4.4342350	293.0253640	78.7575380	31.0436110	460.8494280
32	Telangana	49.1818260	685838.52	19.2125880	22.7139650	12.3893650	18.3519690	121.8497130
33	Tripura	0.4830040	136617.51	2.1921530	16.8726420	0.6326870	3.3093150	23.4898010
34	Uttar Pr.	24.3163150	1059181.84	35.3357200	53.9802710	20.6561230	11.4803120	145.7687410
35	Uttarakhand	6.1560290	67488.22	3.0093810	9.8666220	3.2938600	0.2153580	22.5412500
36	West Bengal	13.2002790	2077396.55	51.1733990	25.5883020	33.6120330	96.0305140	219.6045270
TOTAL (Rs.Crore)		395.3935510	35829924.75	489.3162390	2068.8526250	562.1058560	1142.4991800	4658.1674510
Grand Total (CR): 4658.1674510