General Elections and bye-elections 2026: Seizures surpass Rs. 650 crores
By PIB Delhi
- Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the schedule for the General Election to Legislative Assemblies of Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal and bye-elections in 6 states on March 15,2026. The Commission has directed the State/UT governments to ensure strict compliance with the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
- It may be recalled that the Commission has held multiple review meetings with the Chief Secretaries, CEOs, DGPs, and senior officers from the 5 poll-going states/UTs and their 12 bordering states/UTs along with the Heads of Enforcement Agencies and directed them to ensure violence-free, intimidation-free and inducement- free elections.
- To ensure this, over 5,173 Flying squads have been deployed across the States/UT to ensure that the complaints are attended to within 100 minutes. Besides this, over 5,200 Static Surveillance Teams (SSTs) have also been deployed for setting up surprise Nakas at different locations.
- Since the activation of the Electronic Seizure Management System (ESMS) on 26th February 2026, the data up to 5th April 2026 is presented below.
| S. N | State | Cash (Rs.Crore) | Liquor Qty (Litres) | Liquor Value (Rs.Crore) | Drugs Value (Rs.Crore) | Precious Metal Value (Rs.Crore) | Freebies/Other Value (Rs.Crore) | Total (Rs.Crore) |
| 1. | West Bengal | 11 | 21,29,103 | 55 | 65 | 39 | 150 | 319 |
| 2. | Tamil Nadu | 30 | 74,029 | 2 | 67 | 8 | 63 | 170 |
| 3. | Assam | 4 | 6,84,627 | 20 | 56 | 4 | 13 | 97 |
| 4. | Kerala | 8 | 64,862 | 2 | 41 | 1 | 5 | 58 |
| 5. | Puducherry | 0.2 | 11,068 | 0.3 | 0 | 6 | 0.01 | 7 |
| TOTAL | 53.2 | 29,63,689 | 79.3 | 230 | 58 | 231.01 | 651.51 |
- The Commission has also stressed that the enforcement authorities should ensure that ordinary citizens are not inconvenienced or harassed during the checking and inspection for the enforcement of these directives. District Grievance Committees have also been setup to address any grievances in this regard.
- Citizens/political parties can report MCC violations using the C-Vigil Module on ECINET.
