On the eve of the first phase of polling in Gujarat, the Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday came out with startling figures of seizures of cash, liquor, freebies, drugs, and even drugs manufacturing units, made by enforcement agencies in the State. Overall, the seizures this time round are over 28 times the recoveries made during the 2017 Assembly polls in the State.

Voting will be held on Thursday for the first phase of Gujarat Assembly elections in 89 seats spread across 19 districts in Saurashtra-Kutch and southern parts of the State where 788 candidates are in the fray.

 In fact, two drugs manufacturing units and drugs worth Rs 478 crore  were unearthed on Wednesday itself with the enforcement agencies still carrying out their operations in Vadodara (Rural) and Vadodara City till late in the evening.

Voting will be held between 8 AM and 5 PM on Thursday across 14,382 polling stations, the office of the State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said in a release. Out of the 89 seats going to polls in the first phase, the BJP won 48 in the 2017 elections, the Congress had won 40, while one seat was bagged by an Independent candidate.

As per information shared by the EC, the Gujarat ATS unearthed two mephedrone (synthetic drug) manufacturing units and about 143 kg of mephedrone worth about Rs 478 crore in Vadodara (Rural) and Vadodara City.

"The ongoing seizure process of heavy consignment of drugs is being led by a team of officers of ATS, Gujarat. If added, the ongoing seizure of drugs, it becomes whopping 28 times. The ATS have detained five people from Nadiad and Vadodara and a criminal case is being registered in ATS Police Station, Ahmedabad under relevant sections of the NDPS Act, 1985," the poll body said in a statement.

The EC further stated that the operation is in progress and complete details will be made available once the operation is completed. Besides the contraband seized in the ongoing operation, drugs worth Rs 61.96 crore have been recovered. The total seizures in the 2017 Gujarat Assembly Election were Rs 27.21 crore. Going by the seizure chart as on November 29, 2022 which marks total seizures of Rs 290.24 crore, there is a massive jump in the amount of seizures which is 10.66 times of seizures in 2017.

 The data showed that 411851.23 litres of liquor worth Rs 14.88 crore has been recovered despite prohibition of liquor in the State.  The EC’s enforcement authorities have seized precious metals and gold worth Rs 15.79 crore; freebies worth Rs 171.24 crore.

"The process of effective expenditure monitoring starts months before the announcement of elections and includes host of activities like appointment of experienced officers as Expenditure Observers, sensitizing and reviewing enforcement agencies for more coordinated and comprehensive monitoring, marking of expenditure sensitive constituencies, ensuring planning of adequate availability of field level teams in the monitoring process and regular follow-ups with DEOs/SPs with a view to curb the role of money-power in vitiating elections. Visits by the Commission to review the electoral preparedness along with the review of Central Observers and DEOs, SPs has already been taken for comprehensive monitoring," the EC said in a statement on Wednesday.

Similarly, seizures in Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, where polling concluded on November 12, saw more than five-fold  increase over figures of the 2017 Assembly elections.

As compared to Rs 9.03 crore worth of seizures in the 2017 Assembly Elections, the seizures in 2022 rose to Rs 57.24 crore in the State.

Apart from the BJP, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), 36 other political outfits, including the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party (SP), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) have also fielded candidates in various seats which will go to polls in the first phase of the election. The BJP and Congress are contesting in all the 89 seats.

The new poll entrant AAP is contesting in 88 seats. Its candidate from Surat East constituency had withdrawn his candidature, leaving the party with one less seat to contest in the first phase.

Among other parties, the BSP has fielded 57 candidates, BTP 14 and CPI-M four candidates. As many as 339 Independents are also in the fray in the first phase of polls. Out of the total 788 candidates, 70 are women, including nine fielded by the BJP, six by the Congress and five by the AAP.

AAP’s chief ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi is contesting from Khambhalia seat in Devbhumi Dwarka district of Saurashtra region that goes to polls on Thursday.

AAP state unit president Gopal Italia is contesting from Katargam in Surat.

Among other prominent candidates in the first phase are Rivaba Jadeja, the wife of cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, who is contesting from Jamnagar (North), and BJP MLAs Harsh Sanghavi and Purnesh Modi from different seats in Surat and five-time MLA Parshottam Solanki from Bhavnagar (Rural).

Sitting Congress MLAs like Lalit Kagathara, Lalit Vasoya, Rutvik Makwana and Mohammad Javed Pirzada are among the candidates in fray in the first phase from seats in Saurashtra region.

Seven-time MLA and veteran tribal leader Chhotu Vasava is contesting from Jhagadia in Bharuch.

With 54 seats, the Saurashtra-Kutch region will be crucial for the Congress as it seeks to better its performance. In the region, the Congress won 30 seats in 2017 compared to 16 in the 2012 election. The BJP, on the other hand, was reduced to 23 seats in 2017 as against 35 won by it in the previous election.

In south Gujarat, the Congress in 2017 bettered its tally to 10 compared to six in the previous polls, while the BJPs tally dropped to 25 in the last election from 28 earlier. South Gujarat also comprises Surat city with 12 seats which have remained the BJP's bastion since a long time.