Punjab Ranks First, Manipur Third On ECI's List Of Illegal Poll Spending

The Election Commission of India (ECI) revealed that it had recovered more than ₹1,000 crores in cash, drugs, liquor and freebies so far in the ongoing assembly elections in five states.

The ECI had stepped up its vigil against such seizures which saw a nearly four-fold increase compared to the previous round of elections in 2017, a statement said.

Punjab topped the list with an amount of ₹510.91 crore worth seizures, which was followed by Uttar Pradesh with ₹307.92 crores worth of seizures, the statement added.

According to the statement from the election body, Manipur came in at third with seizures worth ₹167.83 crores while Uttarakhand and Goa reported ₹18.81 crores and ₹12.73 crores in such seizures respectively.

The total seizures from the five states amounted to over ₹1,018 crores, four times the amount of total seizures made during 2017 assembly elections in these states, which had totaled up to ₹299.84 crores.

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Meanwhile, the statement from the poll body further said that the total cash seizure in the five states amounted to ₹140.29 crores. More than 82 lakh litres of liquor worth around ₹99.84 crores was confiscate, it added.

Apart from that, drugs worth ₹569.52 crore, precious metals worth ₹115.054 crore and freebies worth ₹93.5 crores were also seized, it said.

The ECI in its statement said, “Apart from above mentioned seizure figures, the Commission’s visit galvanised enforcement authorities as the agencies seized drugs worth ₹109 crores in Punjab and more than eight lakh litres of liquor in Uttar Pradesh in the run-up to the elections.”

The commission further informed that it had stepped up its vigil on the expenditure in the run-up to the elections in the five states through a multi-pronged strategy.

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