New Delhi. Drugs, cash, liquor and valuables worth more than Rs 1,760 crore have been seized in five election states. The Election Commission gave this information on Monday and claimed that all these things were to woo the voters. The Commission said that the seizures made since the announcement of the election schedule on October 9 are more than seven times (Rs 239.15 crore) the seizures made during the last assembly elections in these states in 2018.
Voting for assembly elections has taken place in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram, while voting will be held in Rajasthan on 25th and Telangana on 30th November. An Election Commission official said, while announcing the election schedule for five states, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar had emphasized on inducement-free elections to ensure level playing field for all candidates and parties.
Interestingly, according to the Election Commission, no cash or valuables were seized in Mizoram, but officials recovered narcotics worth Rs 29.82 crore. The Election Commission has deployed 228 officers from various services as expenditure observers. 194 assembly constituencies were marked as “expenditure sensitive” seats for strict monitoring. The Commission believes that this figure of seizure may increase.