Assembly polls: Rs 650 crore worth illicit cash, liquor seized; nearly half from West Bengal

New Delhi: Enforcement authorities in four poll-bound states and Puducherry have seized illicit cash, drugs and liquor worth Rs 650 crore aimed at luring voters, the Election Commission said on Sunday.

According to data shared by the poll authority, illicit cash, drugs, liquor and precious metals worth Rs 319 billion were seized in West Bengal, followed by Rs 170 billion seized in Tamil Nadu.

Also Read: Swept-out voters race against deadline as offline objection route breaks down in Kolkata

Over 5,173 flight crew members were deployed to ensure complaints were addressed within 100 minutes.

Besides this, more than 5,200 static surveillance teams (SSTs) have also been deployed to set up surprise nakas (barricades in general) at different places, the poll authority said.

While Kerala, Assam and Puducherry will go to polls on April 9, voting in West Bengal will be in two phases on April 23 and 29. In Tamil Nadu, single-phase general elections will be held on April 23.
Assembly elections will also be held on April 9 and 23 in eight seats in six states.Also Read: Bengal voter list crisis: 23 lakh excluded from polls, courts not working

EC said the data was compiled from the Electronic Seizure Management System.

While parliamentary and by-elections were announced on March 15, the Electronic Watch Management System (ESMS) was put into operation on February 26.