The Election Commission of India has reactivated its economic intelligence panel after a gap of six years to curb the use of money, liquor, and drugs to influence voters ahead of the Bihar polls. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
The Election Commission of India has reactivated its economic intelligence panel after a gap of six years to curb the use of money, liquor, and drugs to influence voters ahead of the Bihar polls.
The Multi-Departmental Committee on Election Intelligence (MDCEI) met in New Delhi on Friday, October 17, for the first time since 2019 to fine-tune the strategy of enforcement agencies and central police forces to prevent the use of money power and freebies to sway voters in the poll-bound State.
The committee was formed in 2014 ahead of that year’s general elections. Officials said the panel had met ahead of elections between 2014 and 2019, but not formally since then. Heads of agencies and security forces had continued to hold discussions on ways to check money power. Friday’s meeting was the first large-scale one after the gap.
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners S. S. Sandhu and Vivek Joshi attended the meeting.
The committee includes 17 departments and agencies: the Central Board of Direct Taxes, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, Enforcement Directorate, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Central Economic Intelligence Bureau, Financial Intelligence Unit-India, Reserve Bank of India, Indian Banks’ Association, Narcotics Control Bureau, Railway Protection Force, Central Industrial Security Force, Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, Sashastra Seema Bal, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, Airports Authority of India, and the Department of Posts.
The meeting focused on preparing a comprehensive roadmap to tackle the use of cash and other inducements in elections.
Inducement-free election
The agencies briefed the Commission on their preparedness, measures taken, and proposed steps to ensure inducement-free elections.
The Election Commission of India instructed that there should be greater cooperation and intelligence sharing among law enforcement agencies on economic offences to enable effective action.
Published – October 19, 2025 09:36 pm IST
