Record seizures made during ongoing Assembly Elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh

The Election Commission of India’s proper planning, assessments, and follow-ups, which included the active involvement of enforcement agencies, resulted in record-breaking seizures during the current Assembly elections in the States of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Chief Election Commissioner Shri Rajiv Kumar emphasised inducement-free elections at the time of the announcement of the dates for the Gujarat Assembly Elections in 2022 and mentioned the sizeable number of seizures made in Himachal Pradesh as support for his position.

As a drive, the results are encouraging with Gujarat witnessing seizures of Rs 71.88 crores in just few days of announcement of elections which surpasses even the seizures made in entire duration of enforcement of Model Code of Conduct in Assembly Elections, 2017 which was Rs 27.21 crores.

Similarly, the seizures in Himachal Pradesh are also significant amounting to Rs 50.28 crores as compared to Rs 9.03 crores, marking more than five-fold increase.

Additionally, increasing public vigilance and use of the cVigil App would significantly reduce the influence of money on elections.

Effective expenditure monitoring begins months before elections are announced and entails a variety of steps, including the appointment of seasoned officers as expenditure observers, education of enforcement agencies to encourage more coordinated and thorough monitoring, identification of constituencies that are sensitive to expenditures, planning for adequate field level team availability, and routine follow-ups with DEOs/SPs. The Commission has already made visits to assess the electoral readiness as well as the evaluation of Central Observers, DEOs, and SPs for thorough monitoring.

Details of seizures already done so far (as on 10.11.2022) in the States of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat is given below:

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Even though it has only been a few days after the Gujarat state elections were declared, police activity has resulted in the seizure of around 1,10,000 litres of alcohol with a market value of Rs. 3.86 Crores. Additionally, DRI reported that at Mundra Port, a significant amount of toys and accessories worth Rs. 64 crores were seized after being misdeclared and hidden in import cargo. The case has seen the arrest of two people, including the schemer, and more investigation is ongoing. The Election Commission of India has also sent out 69 Expenditure Observers to effectively monitor and limit the influence of money in the general elections for the Gujarat Legislative Assembly. A closer eye will be kept on 27 Assembly districts that have been designated as spending-sensitive districts.

During its visit in Himachal Pradesh, Chief Election Commissioner, Shri Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner Shri Anup Chandra Pandey, while reviewing preparedness of districts and enforcement agencies,emphasized tight vigil on illegal mining business and areas like liquor, suspicious cash and product arising out of which has potential of vitiating elections. On the same lines, Investigation Wing of Income Tax Department, which is one of the main participating enforcement agency, conducted raids on stone crushing units in 27 premises of Himachal Pradesh and adjoining States and seized significant cash. It also conducted another search and seizure operation on manufacturer and traders of country liquor, wherein, unaccounted cash was seized and discrepancies in stock and account keeping was observed. Seizures, particularly relating to liquor, drugs and freebies, were also done by Police, Excise officials and other enforcement agencies. For effective monitoring to curb money power in General Elections to Legislative Assembly of Himachal Pradesh, Election Commission of India has also deployed 23 Expenditure Observers.

Even in bye-elections, 2022 in 7 Assembly Constituencies in States of Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra, Telangana, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, in which polling concluded yesterday, significant seizures of Rs.9.35 Crores was made. Record Seizures was made in highly expenditure sensitive Munugode Assembly Constituency of Telangana where significant amount of cash amounting to Rs 6.6 crores along with thousands of liters of liquor, Rs. 1.78 Crores of precious metals has been seized which marks increasing focus on expenditure monitoring process by the Commission to curb menace of money power in elections.When there was need of comprehensive monitoring as was observed in Munugode Assembly Constituency, Commission deployed additional expenditure observer, increased ground level teams and conducted frequent reviews of district administration and feedback sessions through virtual meetings with Observers.

The Commission, on 7th November, also held a Video Conference with Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretary (Home), DGPs, DG (Income Tax, Inv.), Excise Commissioners, IGP (Operations), CEOs of Himachal Pradesh and its neighboring states and reviewed law and order situation and steps taken to keep a vigil on inter-state border movement of inducements and sealing of borders during the electoral process. Commission also reviewed Central Observers for last 72 hours efforts and polling arrangements in line with conducting fair, accessible and inducement-free poll. The efforts on close monitoring will further continue in the poll- going States till completion of the ongoing elections and the figures of seizure is expected to rise further.