By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
The Election Commission on Thursday said it has seized Rs 408.82 crore of illicit inducements from different parts of the country ahead of the elections in four states and one UT.
“Since the activation of the Electronic Seizure Management System (ESMS) on the 26th of February, till 25th March, 2026, over Rs. 408.82 crores worth of illicit inducements including, Rs 17.44 crores in cash, liquor worth Rs. 37.68 crores (16.3 lakh litres), drugs worth Rs. 167.38 crores, precious metals worth Rs. 23 crores and other freebies worth over Rs. 163.30 crores have been seized through a coordinated approach involving multi-enforcement agencies across different States/UTs,” an official statement said.
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).
After the announcements of dates, the Commission held a review meeting 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 to review readiness, enhance coordination, and directed them to ensure violence-free, intimidation-free and inducement-free elections on 24th March, 2026.
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.
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.
From 15th March till 25th March, 70,944 complaints have been lodged using the C-Vigil App in the General elections and the bye-elections bound States/UTs. Of these, 70,831 have been disposed of and 67,899 complaints i.e., 95.8% of the complaints were resolved within 100 minutes.
A complaint redressal system has been set up including a Call Centre number 1950 in which complaint can be lodged by any member of the public or political party, with the DEO/RO concerned.