Money Power In Vote: Money Worth Rs 4,650 Seized Before The 1st Phase Of LS Polls
- By The Tripurapost
- 18 Apr 2024
- 102
The government and the Election Commission of India have been seen making continuous efforts to stop increasing trend of money power in elections.
But the reality is that instead of curbing this trend, it is increasing every time. This can be gauged from the fact that this time the voting for the first phase of the general elections has not even taken place and till now money worth Rs 4,650 crore has been seized.
This is much more than the total seizure of Rs 3,475 crore in the last general elections.
The Election Commission says that the process of seizure started from March and till now around Rs 100 crore worth is being seized every day.
About forty-five percent of the seizures made so far are narcotics. In this, only Rs 395 crore in cash has been seized. Liquor worth four hundred ninety nine crore rupees and intoxicants worth two thousand sixty nine crore rupees have been seized.
It is not a hidden thing that efforts to convert black money into white intensify during elections. Political parties collect funds from many known and unknown sources. To overcome this, the rule of electoral bonds was made.
But that too did not prove to be transparent. Flow of black money and suspicious donations was seen in it. Therefore the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.
But from the accounts of donations received through electoral bonds, it became clear that some political parties have accumulated huge amounts of money.
Obviously, the more money the parties have, the more they will spend. But arbitrary expenditure in elections disrupts the principle of equal opportunity.
It is the responsibility of the Election Commission of India to control this. It is good that he is making efforts in this direction. But the tendency to influence people through money power has increased to such an extent that candidates and parties not only spend more than the limit set by the Election Commission, but also try to influence voters by secretly giving them cash and liquor, drugs, expensive gifts, etc. She also tries.
It is strange that the local administration also cooperates with them in this. One hundred and six government officials who were helping the parties in this election have been caught so far.
This time, even before the announcement of election dates, the Election Commission had announced the formation of monitoring teams to stop the flow of illegal money.
The good thing is that those monitoring teams are working diligently. But it is difficult to say to what extent this tendency of political parties and candidates can be stopped by mere confiscation. In this way, by distributing drugs and alcohol, they are pushing people into the pit of addiction.
Unless strict disciplinary action is taken against them, there will hardly be any hesitation among them.