E-Paper
Stage set for counting today, all parties hopeful of victory
On the polling day on May 11, only 1,175,989 of 2,583,546 registered voters cast their vote in the district. The turnout was especially dismal in urban segments and relatively better in rural segments
The fate of 1,837 candidates contesting to the nine local bodies of Ghaziabad district, currently sealed in electronic voting machines (EVMs) and ballot boxes, will be decided on Saturday when the counting of votes will take place at three locations, said district election officials.
On the polling day on May 11, only 1,175,989 of 2,583,546 registered voters cast their vote in the district. The turnout was especially dismal in urban segments and relatively better in rural segments.
The officials on Friday said counting for the Ghaziabad municipal corporation, and Khoda and Dasna nagar palikas will take place at Govindpuram grain market while that of Patla, Niwari, Faridnagar, Modinagar and Muradnagar local bodies will take place at the centre in Modinagar. The lone counting centre in Loni will count the votes for the Loni Nagar Palika.
“All arrangements have been made at the three counting locations and proper police and administrative presence has been ensured. We have also placed a network of CCTV cameras at the counting centres for transparency. It is expected that the results will start arriving by afternoon and the process may extend till evening,” said Vipin Kumar, additional district magistrate and nodal officer for local bodies.
“The counting for 99 councillor seats and one seat of the city mayor will start Saturday morning. One seat, that of ward 89, has already been declared elected as unopposed. In all, we will have about 38-39 rounds of counting and the winning/losing position will start to emerge after 25-30 rounds,” said Vivek Srivastava, additional district magistrate and returning officer for corporation’s mayor election.
The coveted post of the mayor has been held consecutively by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ever since the municipal board was updated to the status of a corporation in 1994.
In 2017, 13 candidates contested for the post of city mayor and BJP candidate Asha Sharma trounced her nearest candidate, Congress’s Dolly Sharma by a margin of 163,675 votes.
“We estimate that our mayor candidate will win by a record margin of about 2-2.5 lakh votes and the number of councillor seats in the corporation will be more than 70 this time. However, it is disheartening to see that many of our own members (28 were expelled by the party two days ago) are contesting against BJP candidates,” said Ashu Verma, campaign coordinator of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
These elections, there are 12 candidates contesting the mayoral seat which has yet again been reserved for women.
In 2017, the Ghaziabad municipal corporation had 11 independent councillors, 56 BJP councillors, 15 Congress councillors, five Samajwadi Party councillors and 13 Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) councillors.
“We are expecting to make inroads in the corporation and the other local bodies this time. We are also expecting that our vote share will also increase substantially,” said Sachin Sharma, district president, Aam Aadmi Party.
The chairperson seat in the four nagar palikas of Khoda, Modinagar, Muradnagar and Loni were won by the BJP in 2017, but the party could not secure any of the four chairperson seats of the four nagar panchayats.
“We are hopeful of winning the mayor seat and are also expecting to win councillor seats in the corporation and the other local bodies. Let us see how the results unfold,” said Bijender Yadav, district president of the Congress.
The nagar panchayat chairperson seats of Faridnagar and Niwari were won by independent candidates while the BSP won the seat in Patla and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) candidate won the Dasna seat.
“The voting turnout has been high in rural segments and voters in rural areas generally vote for a candidate on the basis of several factors, including caste, personal image of the candidate and even his/her presence in social life. They tend to ignore parties in local elections,” said KK Sharma, associate professor (history) from CCS University, Meerut.
“So, it is expected that more independent candidates may secure seats this time. Due to low turnout in urban segments, it is estimated that the winning margin of candidates will be less in the Ghaziabad municipal corporation,” he said.
These elections, the district recorded an overall polling percentage of 45.52. The individual voter turnout was 41.43% in the municipal corporation, 44% in Khoda, 70.42% in Muradnagar, 55% in Modinagar, 47.16% in Loni, 65.37% in Dasna, 72.37% in Niwari, 73.1% in Patla and 82.18% in Faridnagar.
The overall turnout in 2017 was 46.18% with 41.74% in Ghaziabad municipal corporation, 50.68% in Khoda, 65.19% in Muradnagar, 59.39% in Modinagar, 49.22% in Loni, 64.58% in Dasna, 74.96% in Niwari, 75.33% in Patla and 72.96% in Faridnagar.
