The Election Commission’s has issued guidelines on election expenditure monitoring for the forthcoming Assembly Polls in five states. It has also roped in the Income-Tax department and Financial Intelligence Units to check suspicious transactions. Elections are to be held in Uttarakhand, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Manipur next year.

According to Election Commission, directives to create a database of doubtful transactions and dubious movement of cash, have been issued to the Chief Electoral Officers of these states. The Commission has also asked the elite Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), functioning under Finance Ministry, to scrutinise their records for any instance of information about the assets and liabilities of candidates participating in the polls.