Bihar Assembly Elections and Bye-Elections: 'Seizures Surpass Rs 100 Crores,' Says ECI

The Election Commission of India has announced the schedule for the general election to the legislative assembly of Bihar, 2025, and the bye-elections for 8 ACs. Now, the ECI has given details of the seizure made across states and union territories.

In a press note, the ECI  gave details of the cash, liquor, drugs, precious metals and freebies seized across states and union territories.

"As on 03 November, 2025, over Rs 108.19 crores worth of illicit inducements including Rs 9.62 crores in cash, liquor worth Rs 42.14 crores (9.6 lakh litres), drugs worth Rs 24.61 crores, precious metals worth Rs 5.8 crores and other freebies worth over Rs 26 crores have been seized through a coordinated approach involving multi-enforcement agencies across different states/UTs," the ECI stated.

"The Commission has directed all the Enforcement Authorities to strictly monitor and combat movement of cash, drugs, liquor and other inducements during elections," the ECI's press note added.

The Election Commission of India said that states and union territories have been directed to enforce the MCC.

Also Read: Bihar Assembly Elections 2025, Phase 1 Voting LIVE: Polling Across 121 Constituencies Begins

"The Commission has directed the state/UT governments to ensure strict compliance with the instructions to enforce the Model Code of Conduct (MCC)," the ECI said.

Giving details of surveillance, the ECI said, “824 Flying squads have been deployed across Bihar to ensure that the complaints reported on C-VIGIL are attended to within 100 minutes.”

The ECI also directed authorities to make sure no inconvenience or harassment is caused to ordinary citizens during the enforcement of the directives of the election body.

"The Commission 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," ECI said.

The Election Commission also gave details of numbers and portals where complaints can be lodged.

"Citizens/political parties can report MCC violations using the C-Vigil app on ECINET," the ECI said.

"A complaint monitoring system has been set up including a Call Centre number 1950 in which complaints can be lodged by any member of the public or the political party, with the DEO/RO concerned. This system is operational 24/7," it added.

Bihar Assembly Elections

The 2025 Bihar elections will feature a main contest between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Mahagathbandhan.

The NDA includes the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)), Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) (LJP(RV)), Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) (HAM(S)), and Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM).

The Mahagathbandhan, led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), includes the Congress party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI(ML)) led by Dipankar Bhattacharya, the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)), and Mukesh Sahani's Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP).

Additionally, Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party has staked claims on all 243 seats of the state. The assembly elections will be held in two phases on November 6 and 11. The results will be declared on November 14.