The recent Lok Sabha elections were historic in many ways from record voter turnouts to landslide victories. Equally enthralling was the battle to see which states come out on top in terms of committing most electoral malpractice. As per the Compendium of Instructions on Election Expenditure Monitoring published by the Election Commission in January 2014, we have created six award categories:

1)      खुले आम रिश्वत  award aka Cash Seized
2)      देसी ठर्रा  award aka Liquor Seized
3)      सबसे बड़ा नशेड़ी  award aka Drugs Seized
4)      रिवाल्वर रानी  award aka Illegal Arms Seized
5)      बुल्ला भाई award aka Persons against whom action taken under preventive laws
6)      बालासाहेब मेमोरियल award aka Overall Champion State

Methodology
During elections, the EC uses State Police forces, State Excise Departments and the Investigation Directorate of Income Tax to conduct seizures. More importantly, the EC mobilizes Flying Squads and creates static Surveillance Teams in each constituency to conduct seizures. Data collected by all these sources is then assimilated by the election commission.
States with either 1 or 2 total constituencies have been ignored. All data presented below is per constituency. So for instance, total data of UP was divided by 80 and total data of Tamil Nadu was divided by 39.

खुले आम रिश्वत award aka Cash Seized

Honourable Mentions
Tamil Nadu; 1.04 crores seized per constituency
Punjab; 2.77 crores seized per constituency

Winner
Andhra Pradesh; 2.96 crores seized per constituency

This is the only category where there was strong representation from the South Indian states. Next on the list was Karnataka with 73 lakhs seized per constituency. Usually, there is a trend of money power being preferred by the South over muscle power (which is preferred up north). Andhra won’t have it as easy going ahead since half of the state’s corruption machinery will now be with Telengana. This means that there is a great opportunity for Punjab to dominate this award in years ahead – lot more on Punjab later.

देसी ठर्रा award aka Liquor Seized

Honourable Mentions
Gujarat; 65 thousand litres seized per constituency
Himachal Pradesh; 127 thousand litres seized per constituency

Winner
Punjab; 501 thousand litres seized per constituency

This list is mind boggling. Gujarat is supposed to be a dry state, yet it managed to perform admirably. Maybe the banning of alcohol means that political parties have a fantastic tool at their disposal to use as a bribe. More impressive is Punjab. The state accounted for 40% of all alcohol seized during the elections in India. Half a million litres of alcohol per constituency! That is phenomenal.

सबसे बड़ा नशेड़ी award aka Drugs Seized

Honourable Mentions
Haryana; 25 kilos seized per constituency
Rajasthan; 172 kilos seized per constituency

Winner
Punjab; 650 kilos seized per constituency

Another shocking number from Punjab. It is possible that the flying squads in Punjab were supremely competent. In any event, Punjab accounted for 50% of all drugs seized across India.

रिवाल्वर रानी award aka Illegal Arms Seized

Honourable Mentions
Assam; 39 arms seized per constituency
Uttar Pradesh; 62 arms seized per constituency

Winner
Madhya Pradesh; 80 arms seized per constituency

No surprises in this list. Disappointing that Bihar was extremely low on the list with 16 arms seized per constituency. But that could easily be because of incompetent authorities. North and north-east dominates this list. That’s what these regions do best!

बुल्ला भाई award aka Persons against whom action taken under preventive laws

Honourable Mentions
Gujarat; 2,224 persons per constituency
Rajasthan; 3,745 persons per constituency

Winner
Uttar Pradesh; 7,045 persons per constituency

This is UP’s strength – people. If UP was a country it would be the 5th most populous one in the world. 49% of all preventive action across India was in the state of UP. This is a category that UP is set to dominate, forever.

बालासाहेब मेमोरियल award aka Overall Champion State

It has to be Punjab. Just based purely on the amount of drugs and alcohol that went around in this state, its not surprising that Punjab broke voter turnout records. What a performance by the electorate and the political parties!

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