General Elections and bye-elections 2026: Seizures surpass Rs 865 crores in TN and WB

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 on March 15,2026. The Commission has directed the State/UT governments to ensure strict compliance with the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). It may be recalled that the Commission has held multiple review meetings with the Chief Secretaries, CEOs, DGPs, and senior officers from the poll-going states/UTs and their bordering states/UTs along with the Heads of Enforcement Agencies and directed them to ensure violence-free, intimidation-free and inducement free elections. To ensure this, over 5,011 (2,728 in WB and 2,283 in TN) Flying Squad Teams (FSTs) have been deployed across the two States to ensure that the complaints are attended to within 100 minutes. Besides this, over 5,363 (3,142 in WB and 2,221 in TN) Static Surveillance Teams (SSTs) have also been deployed for setting up surprise Nakas at different locations. Since the activation of the Election Seizure Management System (ESMS) on 26th February 2026, the data up to 17 th April 2026 is presented below. S. No State Cash (Rs. Crore) Liquor Qty (Litres) Liquor Value (Rs. Crore) Drugs Value (Rs. Crore) Preciou s Metal (Rs. Crore) Freebies/ Other (Rs. Crore) Total (Rs. Crore) 1. West Bengal 21 31,94,621 81 100 54 172 427 2. Tamil Nadu 78 97,107 3 74 105 178 438 TOTAL 99 32,91,728 84 174 159 350 865 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. Citizens/political parties can report MCC violations using the C-Vigil Module on ECINET.