THE Election Commission on Monday said over Rs 1,760 crore worth of freebies, drugs, cash, liquor and precious metals aimed at inducing voters in the five poll-going States have been seized so far. The poll panel said the seizures made since the polls were announced on October 9 are over seven times (Rs 239.15 crore) the seizures made in the previous Assembly elections in these States in 2018. While Assembly polls have already been held in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram, voting will take place in Rajasthan and Telangana on November 25 and November 30 respectively.

 

According to an EC statement, seizures worth over Rs 1,400 crore were made in the past six State Assembly elections held in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura and Karnataka, which was 11 times the seizures made in previous Assembly elections in these States. Interestingly, according to the EC, no cash or precious metal was seized in Mizoram, but drugs worth Rs 29.82 crore were recovered by authorities. The poll panel has deployed 228 officers from various services as expenditure observers. Also, 194 Assembly constituencies were marked as “expenditure sensitive” seats.