RS polls money seizure a shocker for entire nation, says CEC Quraishi

New Delhi, Mar 31 (ANI): Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi on Saturday said that the large amount of money seized in Jharkhand during the Rajya Sabha polls was a shocker for the entire nation.

"It is a shocker not just for us but also for the entire nation, it is very unfortunate if horse trading like this is going on in the Rajya Sabha elections," said Quraishi.

Quraishi further said that he took action after he received complaints from political leaders and the media.

"See we had received complaints from senior political leaders like Mr. Marandi (Babu Lal Marandi) and before that Mr. Sharad Yadav had complained, Gurudas Dasgupta also complained about it and media had reported about the matter that such kinds of transactions are taking place.

So we had alerted our machinery in Bihar, a day before the incident, to alert the income tax machinery to keep vigilance on such activities," he said.

Expressing happiness over the work done by the income tax authorities, Quraishi added that in light of such evidence it was necessary to cancel the elections.

"I am very happy that the income tax authorities worked very efficiently in capturing the car carrying 2.15 crore rupees. And those who were caught also told that there were two more cars behind it in which money was kept and which went back.

So in light of such evidence, we thought it was necessary that we took some action, and so we wrote a letter to president to cancel this election and conduct it again," added Quraishi.

The Election Commission (EC) on Friday countermanded the Rajya Sabha polls in Jharkhand after the seizure of over two crore rupees from the car of a candidate's relative.

The income tax officials had seized cash of over two crore rupees from Namkum area in Ranchi and arrested two persons along with the cash.

It was reported that the car belonged to the brother of R. K. Aggarwal, who was contesting as an independent candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls from Jharkhand. By Pankaj Choudhary(ANI)