Expressing apprehensions that the Jan Dhan accounts may be misused for money laundering in the 2017 UP assembly polls, social organization Association for Democratic Reforms on Monday said that demonetization would bring to the fore a new type of broker of black money, while a significant portion of the black money would be spent on media.

A survey conducted by ADR and UP Election Watch to study the impact of demonetisation in the upcoming UP assembly polls indicates that it will have no impact on campaigning or poll expense. Speaking to reporters, Sanajay, the convenor of UP Election Watch, said, "The survey reveals that 69% of prospective candidates and party office-bearers admitted that compared to previous polls, the cost of contesting elections would be escalated at least by 10% due to demonetisation."

He further stated that around 65% of probable candidates said that there would be no impact on the mode and methods of luring voters in the coming assembly polls, whereas 70% said that they would follow the old patterns to woo voters.

Traders who deal in election campaign material, event managers, printers and travel agents admitted that there would be problem in campaigning. "Almost 70% of the traders claimed that their trade has been affected. On cashless system, 60% of traders admitted that it would have no adverse impact on their business," Singh said.

"A large sum of unaccounted money would be spent on new and social media in the forthcoming assembly polls this time," the surveyconducted in 30 assembly constituencies in 10 divisions of UP, Jhansi, Banda, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Allahabad, Agra and Bareilly, said.