E-Paper
Assembly bypoll: 20 counting rounds for Kasba; 37 for Chinchwad
The counting for the Kasba Peth assembly seat would take place at the Food Corporation of India’s warehouse in Koregaon Park, while the process for the Chinchwad seat would take place at the Shankarao Gawade Kamgar Bhavan in Thergaon
A day after the Election Commission released the polling numbers, the autonomous authority has made elaborate arrangements for the smooth conduct of the counting process that takes place on March 2.
The counting for the Kasba Peth assembly seat would take place at the Food Corporation of India’s warehouse in Koregaon Park, while the process for the Chinchwad seat would take place at the Shankarao Gawade Kamgar Bhavan in Thergaon.
The Kasba bypoll seat has 20 counting rounds and the Chinchwad assembly has 37 counting rounds. The manpower required for Kasba and Chinchwad seats is 1,080 and 2,040 respectively. The Election Commission has kept 25 per cent of the workforce as a reserve for the big day.
Considering the Kasba Assembly has fewer rounds, the results for the significant seat may be available sooner than the Chinchwad results.
The Election Commission of India has already appointed staff to carry out duties on the counting day.
Commenting on the development, Rajesh Deshmukh, the Pune district collector, stated, “We trained the counting staff and then deployed them to both locations. The district administration had made the necessary preparations for counting and informing the public. Even a sufficient police bandobast was deployed for counting.”
The byelections in Kasba Peth and Chinchwad were necessitated due to the death of their respective Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs Mukta Tilak and Laxman Jagtap.
Despite the by-election, voter turnout in the Kasba assembly constituency reached 50% due to a fierce battle between the BJP-Shiv Sena on one hand and the MVA on the other.
The total number of registered voters in the Kasba Assembly seat are 2,75,058 of which 1,38,175 voters cast their vote.
In 2019, the turnout for the Lok Sabha election was 53.59 per cent, while the turnout for the assembly election was 51.54 per cent. Because it was a by-election, both political parties anticipated that voting would be between 40 and 45 per cent, as citizens tend to turn out in smaller numbers during by-elections.
