Assembly Elections: ₹1,000 Cr worth cash, liquor & drugs seized; 7 times higher than 2019 in Maharashtra, Jharkhand

Assembly Election 2024: Enforcement agencies under the Election Commission of India (ECI) have seized cash, liquor, drugs, freebies and other inducements worth over ₹1,000 crore in the ongoing elections to the Maharashtra and Jharkhand Assemblies and bypolls in other states.

Overall, ₹858 crores worth of seizures have been reported for the states of Maharashtra and Jharkhand, which is seven times the seizures done during the assembly elections in these two states in 2019, the poll panel said.

In 2019 Assembly elections, Maharashtra recorded seizures worth ₹103.61 crores while for Jharkhand it was ₹18.76 crores.

Campaigning ends today

Campaigning for phase 2 of Jaharkhand and single-phase Maharashtra election ended on Monday.

Elections to 81-member Jharkhand assembly is taking place in two phases. First phase for 43 seats was held on November 13. The second phase for the remaining 38 seats will be held on November 20, the same day when all 288 seats of Maharashtra will go to polls. The results of both these states will be declared on November 23.

Apart from assembly elections, bypolls for 48 assembly constituencies and two Lok Sabha seats are also being held.

Ganja plants worth ₹4.51 Cr

In Maharashtra, seizures were recorded in all cohorts across all districts, much higher than previous assembly elections. This includes seizure of ₹3.70 crores of cash from a suspicious Jeep in Wada police station area in Palghar district. In another incident, in Jamod seat of Buldhana district, 4500 kg of Ganja plants worth ₹4.51 crores were seized. In Raigad, ₹5.20 crores worth of silver bars were seized.

In Maharashtra, theBharatiya Janata Party(BJP), which in alliance with Ajit Pawar-led NCP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena under the rulingMahayutibanner, is contesting against the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance comprising the Shiv Sena (UBT), the NCP (Sharad Pawar) and the Congress.

In Jharkhand, ₹2.26 crore worth of illegal mining material was seized in Rajmahal assembly seat of Sahibganj district, the poll panel said. Similarly, in Daltoganj, 687 kg of poppy straw was seized while in Hazaribagh, 48.18 kg of Marijuana was seized, the poll panel said.

The contest in Jharkhand is between the rulingJharkhand Mukti Morcha-led INDIA bloc and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The Election Commission attributed the record seizure to extensive monitoring which, it said, started months before the announcement of poll dates in October.