In the three weeks since the announcement of Assembly elections in Bihar besides bypolls in seven states, authorities have seized cash, liquor, drugs, precious metals and freebies worth Rs 71.32 crore, as per an Election Commission (EC) statement Tuesday.
“As on October 21, over Rs 71.32 crore worth cash, liquor, drugs, precious metals and other freebies have been seized through a coordinated approach involving multi-enforcement agencies across different States/UTs (Union Territories),” the EC said.
As on Tuesday, 650 complaints of alleged Model Code of Conduct (MCC) violations in Bihar and the bypoll states had been lodged on the EC’s C-Vigil app, it said. Of these, 612 were resolved within 100 minutes, it said.
The EC said 824 flying squads had been deployed in Bihar to attend to complaints of MCC violations. Bihar is set to go to the polls in two phases — on November 6 and November 11. Counting of votes is scheduled on November 14.
On October 6, the EC had announced the schedule for the Bihar elections as well as eight Assembly bypolls in Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Telangana, Punjab, Mizoram and Odisha.
With the announcement, the MCC came into effect, leading to a strict vigil on possible distribution of freebies by parties and candidates to induce voters.
