In a bid to check suspicious transactions, the Election Commission has rolled out fresh guidelines for monitoring of poll funding during the forthcoming elections in five states, including Uttar Pradesh, and has roped in the income tax department and the financial intelligence unit for this purpose. 

The directives to create a database of doubtful transactions and dubious movement of cash were recently issued by the EC to chief electoral officers of the five states that go to the polls. 

"The EC guidelines on poll expenditure monitoring have been operationalized," a senior official privy to the development said. This is for the first time that the EC has asked the elite financial intelligence unit, functioning under the finance ministry, to sift through their records for any instance of information about the assets and liabilities of candidates participating in the polls. 

"Besides, the I-T (investigation) and FIU will download from EC website the copies of affidavits declaring assets and liabilities by the candidates. The FIU will also verify the information available with them pertaining to the candidates and send the report to the director general of income tax (investigation) of the state through the Central Board of Direct Taxes," the EC said. (Times of India)