Use of black money has cast its shadow on the ensuing Assembly elections/Black faces flak in UP, Punjab, Goa/.

Black faces flak in UP, Punjab, Goa

Monday, 09 January 2012 00:14
Preetam Srivastava/PNS | Lucknow/Delhi


Use of black money has cast its shadow on the ensuing Assembly elections. Amid intelligence inputs suggesting that black money worth a whopping Rs 10,000 crore will be pumped into Uttar Pradesh alone, heightened checking of vehicles in States is already yielding recoveries of unaccounted cash worth crores daily, in the run-up to the elections.

No wonder then that Chief Election Commission SY Quraishi on Sunday minced no words in admitting that UP and Punjab, along with Goa “will give us problems on the money front”.

The recovery of around Rs 10 crore in cash from a dozen districts in Uttar Pradesh, besides over Rs 15 crore in Punjab, in the last few days is the fallout of the intelligence input. This pressed the panic button for the Election Commission of India (EC) brass, which ordered law enforcing agencies and Income Tax to thwart the malaise resulting in frequent checkings.

The startling fact came to the fore during routine situational analysis and collection of inputs by Intelligence Bureau (IB) sleuths in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, which will witness a seven-phase polling for 403 seats.

It surfaced that the unaccounted money will be used by the candidates in spending on various election related activities including maintaining a fleet of SUVs to impress the voters without mentioning them under the head of election campaign related expenditure which has to be submitted to the EC bosses for scrutiny.

The inputs indicated the mind-boggling amount was to be spent on by-now routine modes of offering gifts, cash packets and organising booze parties to lure voters. A part of it was also to be kept for the upkeep of election workers and media management. A similar modus operandi was adopted successfully by some politicians in the last Parliament elections in the State in 2009.

“We feel that Punjab and Uttar Pradesh will give us problems on the money front. And so will Goa, because money plays a big role,” CEC Quraishi told PTI. Our belief is that for every one crore that we seize, we must have stopped Rs 50 crores, he maintained.

He said the Commission will also keep a tab on paid news during polls besides on the television channels and newspapers owned by various political parties and account for the expenses incurred on election campaigns for candidates of their respective political party.

“We are aware that political parties have their own channels and newspapers. This is also disturbing the model code and level playing field,” said Quraishi. The Commission had followed a similar line of action during the polls in five States last year. Of the total unaccounted cash of Rs 73 crore seized, Tamil Nadu alone accounted for Rs 60 crore.

The EC has already disqualified one person for paid news - Umlesh Yadav, who contested in 2007 as a Rashtriya Parivartan Dal MLA from Bisauli Assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

Sources claimed that after becoming privy to the hidden agenda of the politicians, the IB alerted the Election Commission asking it to take immediate preventive measures. The EC-appointed battery of officials including 102 expenditure observers, 403 assistant expenditure observers and another 403 others was instructed to co-ordinate with officials of UP Police, Income Tax department and Enforcement Directorate and get into the act of thwarting the evil design.

The UP Police brass on its part, appointed static surveillance teams in all districts of the state and also sensitised the alerted sleuths of STF and Economic Offence Wing to keep strict a vigil on operations of hawala traders and even legal monetary transactions from overseas through genuine firms like Western Union Money Transfer.

The help of electronic surveillance is also being taken to keep a tab on some big businessmen and contractors with close political links.