For Quick Alerts
ALLOW NOTIFICATIONS  
For Daily Alerts
Oneindia App Download

Karnataka polls: It is getting dirty, cash, liquor seizures up by 350 per cent compared to 2013

|
Google Oneindia News

The money power being deployed in the Karnataka elections is getting obscene. So far the seizures have been to the tune of Rs 65 crore adn this is an increase of 350 per cent when compared to the 2013 elections.

Karnataka polls: It is getting dirty, cash, liquor seizures up by 350 per cent compared to 2013

Election Commission officials have been busy and have relied heavily on intelligence inputs to seize money. With around 8 more days remaining for the campaigning to end, EC officials expect that the cash seizures would go up considerably.

Investigations have shown that a bulk of the money had been withdrawn from ATMs over the past two months. 90 per cent of the seizures reported were in the denomination of Rs 500 and 2,000. This could be the possible reason why there was a cash crunch in the ATMs, sources say.

The highest withdrawals were reported from Karnataka, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It was found that the money was withdrawn over a period of two months and brought into Karnataka. It was then hoarded and was meant to be used during the elections. In one of the seizures, a handler was found in possession of Rs 3 crore in cash. Of this, Rs 2 crore was found hidden in his car, officials say. In another incident, officials seized Rs 1.22 crore in cash from a car on the Bangalore-Pune highway. It is suspected that this money was being transported for election purposes.

The importance of this election can be seen in the amount of cash that has been seized. During the Karnataka elections in 2013, the cash seized was Rs 14.42 crore. This year the figure has shot up to Rs 65 crore already and there is still over a week to go before the election process is complete. In the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, seizures recorded from Karnataka stood at Rs 28 crore.

There is a ceiling of Rs 28 lakh per candidate. But looking at the election heat, it seems as though this money would have been spent in the first few hours of the campaign itself. It is just not cash that is being splurged around for the campaign. There are sarees, pressure cookers and in the Malnad region one candidate has made available bore well drilling machines for prospective voters.

There is liquor as well which has been seized in large numbers. This year alone 4.49 lakh litres of liquor have been seized. This is a mighty jump when compared to the 68,000 litres that were seized in 2013. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, EC officials had seized 45,000 litres of liquor.

Karnataka Assembly Election dates
Date of notification April 17
Last date to file nominations April 24
Last date to withdraw nominations April 27
Date of polling May 12
Date of counting May 15
For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X