The Election Commission of India’s thrust on “inducement-free” elections has led to sustained efforts for election expenditure monitoring in poll-going states of Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya. The recorded seizures in the three states mark a significant increase with over 20 times increase in seizures as compared to Assembly Elections in 2018. 

During visits to these poll-going states in January, the Election Commission had exhaustively reviewed the preparations with Central and State enforcement agencies. It may be recalled that on the occasion of the announcement of dates for Assembly Elections, 2023, Chief Election Commissioner, Shri Rajiv Kumar stressed on increased vigil and zero tolerance on distribution of inducements during electoral process.

Now, due to the coordinated efforts of enforcement agencies, extensive monitoring, marking of expenditure sensitive constituencies and adequate deployment of field teams, the results are encouraging with these three states witnessing seizures of Rs.147.84 crores after announcement of elections which surpasses the seizures made in entire duration of enforcement of Model Code of Conduct in Assembly Elections, 2018 which was all of Rs.7.24 crores.