Central Industrial Security Force and police checking vehicles ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and Secunderabad Assembly by-election, in Hyderabad on April 27, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Nagara Gopal
Contesting for Assembly and Lok Sabha seats from Telangana is becoming costlier with every election. This is evident in the increase in the amount of cash, the quantity of liquor and narcotics/drugs, and gold and other precious metals that are being seized in the run-up to the election in the State.
Enforcement agencies seized more than ₹155 crore between March 1 and the third week of April. This includes ₹60.96 crore of cash, liquor worth ₹29.35 crore, drugs and narcotics worth ₹23.87 crore, precious metals worth ₹18.36 crore, and ‘other freebies’ worth ₹23.12 crore. In contrast, in 2014, ₹34.38 crore of cash was seized before the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in united Andhra Pradesh. Of the seizures this time, the highest amount of cash was seized from Hyderabad district (₹16.73 crore) and then Mahbubnagar (₹6.34 crore).
The seizures had increased by the 2018 Assembly elections when enforcement agencies become more vigilant on the borders and in certain sensitive areas in the State. Then, ₹145 crore was seized, with the police department reporting ₹103.89 crore and the Income Tax (IT) department reporting ₹34.19 crore. Before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, ₹84.26 crore including ₹46.4 crore by the police and ₹29.14 crore by the IT department was seized. Senior officials said the election authority has details of the total amounts seized in the 2018 and 2019 elections, but not cohort-wise reports as they were not maintained/monitored. “We have cohort-wise reports only of the 2023 elections,” Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj said.
Before the 2023 Assembly elections, there was a meteoric rise in the quantum of seizures; it crossed ₹750 crore. While political parties distributed cash and liquor in the past, the distribution of drugs/narcotics and precious metals has been increasing since the 2018 Assembly elections. Notably, ‘other freebies’ such as laptops, cell phones, sarees and two wheelers and four wheelers too form a significant chunk of seizures now.
In the 2023 Assembly elections, the enforcement agencies seized ₹317.58 crore of cash, liquor worth ₹128.24 crore and drugs/narcotics worth ₹41.71 crore. Gold, silver and other precious metals worth ₹186.97 crore were also seized. There were allegations that a major chunk of these belonged to jewellers and traders, but the attempts to lure voters with these items has not been ruled out.
Other freebies such as laptops, cookers, sarees and even rice were seized in some areas in the 2023 Assembly polls. These freebies meant to induce voters amounted to ₹85.54 crore in that election and has reached close to the ₹25 crore mark in the current Lok Sabha polls.
The CEO said officials have kept a keen eye on the movement of inducements. This has resulted in seizures of huge quantities of cash and other allurements. Officials were also alerted by the confessional statements of the accused in the phone-tapping case in 2023. In their statements, the accused said that money was transported in government and police vehicles. The CEO said steps have been initiated to ensure that there is no scope for such developments this time around.
The secretary for the Forum for Good Governance, M. Padmanabha Reddy, contended that the money meant for inducing voters has been reaching them in spite of the seizures by the election authorities. The phone-tapping case is under investigation by the police. “The accused have admitted that they have transported huge amounts of cash from one place to other during the elections,” he said.
Given the huge amounts of cash and other freebies that have been seized even before the last date of filing nominations, officials have been checking government and police vehicles too as a precautionary measure. Though more and more seizures are being made, no cases have been registered against the candidates contesting, who are responsible for the distribution of cash, liquor, and freebies. Due to lack of evidence, they are unable to present evidence in the special court constituted to try the offences, including election offences, by MLAs and MPs. It is grossly insufficient to register cases against drivers transporting the cash or freebies but not the candidates who are trying to induce voters. If officials are serious about tackling bribery, they need to do more than just seize cash and freebies.
