It’s a record by far. Surpassing all previous figures, law enforcing agencies have seized unaccounted cash worth over Rs 31 crore and gold and silver ornaments worth another Rs 8 crore in the last three weeks, ahead of the June 12 bypolls in one Lok Sabha and 18 Assembly constituencies.
The amount seized during the 2009 general elections held for 294 Assembly and 42 Lok Sabha seats was only `38 crore, a figure that seems relatively meek considering the fact that there is still a week left for the byelections. The money exchanging hands could well go up with all the major political parties leaving no stone unturned to win the coveted seats, say the law enforcing officials.
Terming the distribution of money, liquor and other household appliances during elections to attract votes as a trend which is quite persistent in the state, chief electoral officer (CEO) Bhanwarlal told Express that Andhra Pradesh tops in the country in distribution of money and other valuables by political parties during elections.
“Even the Election Commission (EC) is worried over the growing unhealthy trend which may set a bad precedence for other states in the country,” he said, adding that the EC has taken several measures to crack down on the malpractice by setting up mobile search parties, check posts at important locations, especially across the border areas in the state.
Nellore district tops in seizure of unaccounted money with `7 crore unaccounted money found so far. This is followed closely by Rajampet, Kodur and Rayachoti in Kadapa district where over `6.32 crore has been seized. The figure in Rayadurg and Anantapur Urban of Anantapur district is about `5.72 crore and in Narsapuram and Polavarm of West Godavari district it is about `3.73 crore. Rayadurg and Anantapur Urban top in the distribution of gold with about 16 kg of gold recovered so far. This is followed by Ramchandrapurm with 7 kgs gold and Rajampet, Kodur and Rayachoti with 2 kg.