HomeNewsPoliticsAssembly Elections 2021 | Here's what happens to cash and goodies worth crores seized in poll season

Assembly Elections 2021 | Here's what happens to cash and goodies worth crores seized in poll season

The status of money and other electoral inducements captured by authorities, once the ballot has been cast, remains largely opaque, despite petitions to the apex court and filing of several RTI queries

March 19, 2021 / 11:30 IST
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Assembly Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | BJP supporters wearing masks of PM Narendra Modi at a rally in Kolkata, West Bengal on March 7, 2021 (Image: AP)
Assembly Elections 2021 LIVE Updates | BJP supporters wearing masks of PM Narendra Modi at a rally in Kolkata, West Bengal on March 7, 2021 (Image: AP)

To draw upon the connection between elections and black money is to state a time-tested truism, however clichéd it may appear. Its true ramifications on the ground are captured well in this snapshot. Consider the following:

-The Election Commission (EC) announced on March 17, 2021, a record  331 crore in seizures of cash, liquor, drugs and other goods in the poll-bound assemblies of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry. The election in these assemblies will begin on March 27 and counting of votes will be held on May 2.

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-Cash and valuables worth  35. 26 crore held during the October 19, 2020, Bihar assembly elections.

-Cash, drugs, liquor and precious metal worth  3,456.22 crore seized until May 20 in the run up to 2019 general elections