Counting of votes for 542 Lok Sabha seats and four states begins today
WEB DESK
India is waiting eagerly for the results of Lok Sabha election as counting of votes began today. Over eight thousand candidates are in the fray for 542 seats.
Out of the total 543 Parliamentary seats, elections were held in 542 constituencies as the Election Commission had cancelled polls to the Vellore seat in Tamil Nadu on the grounds of excessive use of money power. The fresh date for elections in Vellore is yet to be announced.
Counting will also take place for four state assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. The results are expected only by late evening due to tallying of Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail slips with the Electronic Voting Machines.
This is the first time that results of voting machines will be matched with slips generated by paper trail machines. The exercise will take place in five polling stations selected at random per Assembly segment. This effectively means the EVM-VVPAT matching will take place in 20,600 out of nearly 10.3 lakh polling stations.
As per procedure, postal ballots would be the first to be counted.
Service voters stood at 18 lakh. Out of 18 lakh registered voters, 16.49 lakh have already sent their postal ballots to their respective returning officers.
Meanwhile, a 24- hour EVM Control Room has been set up at Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi to monitor complaints relating to polled EVMs. The Control Room contact number is 011-23052123.
In all, 67.11 per cent of the 90.99 crore electors exercised their franchise in the seven-phase long polling process. This is the highest ever voter turnout in Indian Parliamentarian elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues including Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Radha Mohan Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Dr. Harsh Vardhan and Narendra Singh Tomar along with Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbeer Singh Badal and his wife and Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal; Congress President Rahul Gandhi, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, former Chief Ministers Digvijay Singh, Sheila Dikshit, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former Union Ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia, Pawan Kumar Bansal and Manish Tewari, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amrinder Singh’s wife Preneet Kaur; Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav and party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav are among the prominent candidates in the fray.
Elaborate arrangements made at counting centres across the country. In Uttar Pradesh, stage is all set for counting for 80 Lok Sabha seats of the state. Election commission has made arrangements for transparent counting in 75 districts. Counting for Agra north and Nighasan assembly seats will also take place tomorrow.
Strict security measures are at place, Section 144 has been imposed around the counting center area, liquor shops will be closed and traffic has been diverted where counting will take place. Counting tables are in place and special cabins have been formed for matching of VVPAT slips. The fate of many high profile leaders including Senior BJP leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and many present and former union ministers will be decided tomorrow. Additional Chief Election officer of state Dr. Brahmdev Ram Tiwari told AIR that whole counting process is highly transparent and will be in public domain.
In Bihar tight security arrangements have been made for tomorrow polls. Counting of votes of 40 Lok Sabha constituencies will be at 34 counting centres of the state. AIR correspondent reports that counting of two parliamentary constituencies will be undertaken at each of the seven district headquarter including Patna. Over 17 thousand staffs have been pressed into counting of votes .
Polling agents of contesting political parties will be at counting centres. Three tier security arrangements have been made to ensure trouble free counting process. The state government has instructed to keep vigil on victory procession. Counting staffs will take oath of secrecy before starting counting. CCTV camera will monitor activities in and around the counting centres .There will be videography of counting process.
Counting of votes for 14 Lok Sabha seats of Jharkhand will start tomorrow from 8 a.m. along with counting of other seats of the country.
Election Commission has made arrangements for transparent counting in the state. 14 different counting centres in 14 districts will have separate halls for every Assembly segments in the Lok Sabha constituencies and each hall will have fixed number of tables as per rounds of counting. The standard of transparency and neutrality is to be a strictly maintained. All the strong rooms locks will be opened in front of representatives of political parties or candidates and the observers of the Election Commission. Tight security will be maintained in all the counting centres.
In Tamil Nadu, all preparatory arrangements have been made at 45 counting centres for the counting of votes polled for the 38 Lok Sabha seats and the 22 Assembly seats that witnessed bye-polls. AIR correspondent reports that security has been tightened around all the 45 counting centres and other sensitive pockets across the state in view of the Union Home Ministry’s nationwide .
Randomization of counting staff has been completed. The counting process as a whole will be monitored from the control room set up by the Election Department at the state secretariat in Chennai. The number of rounds of counting varies from a minimum of ninteen in Central Chennai and a maximum of 34 in Tiruvallur, based on the number of voters.
In Rajasthan, 25 counting centers have been set up for 25 parliamentary constituencies. Chief Electoral Officer Anand Kumar told that all arrangements are in place for counting which is scheduled to start by 8 AM tomorrow.
Political fate of 249 candidates including 23 women is to be decided tomorrow which include some prominent faces.
These are Central Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore, Arjun Ram Meghwal, P.P.Chaudhary, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Former Central Ministers Nihal Chand Meghwal, Jaskaur Meena, Jitendra Singh and Subhash Mahariya, RLP Chief Hanuman Beniwal and olympion Krishna Poonia. Some seats are of attraction for everyone which include Jodhpur, Nagaur, Jaipur Rural, Dausa and Bikaner.
In Gujarat, the Counting of votes for 26 Lok Sabha seats and by-poll of 4 assembly seats will take place at 28 centers across the State from tomorrow morning. Each counting centre will have 14 tables in addition to one table for Returning Officer. Apart from Election officer, 182 assistant election officers, 122 additional assistant election officers, 41 observers will remain on duty during the counting of votes. Counting table will have one counting supervisor, one assistant and one micro observer. Staff of more than 300 will be on duty for counting of postal ballots. The counting centers will have three-layer security.