All preparations are complete for the counting of votes at Mundera Mandi premises in Prayagraj where the fate of 169 candidates in poll fray from 12 assembly seats of the district would be decided on Thursday. District election officer has deputed 1,192 government employees for the counting exercise that would get underway from 8 am on 14 tables for each for the 12 seats and will continue till all results are declared.
A similar exercise would be undertaken in Kaushambi for the district’s three seats and Pratapgarh for its seven seats.
In Prayagraj, for every assembly poll counting 14 tables have been put together, but this time seven tables on either side would be placed facing each other with a curtain in the middle, informed deputy district election officer Harsh Dev Pandey.
He said that the returning officers (ROs) of the assembly constituency would be present on one side of the tables, while assistant returning officers (AROs) would be present on the other during the counting process at Mundera Mandi premises.
The counting would decide the fate of two UP ministers Sidharth Nath Singh and Nand Gopal Gupta “Nandi” of BJP, besides leaders like SP’s Ujjawal Raman Singh, BJP’s sitting MLA Harshvardhan Bajpai and Congress’s former MLA Anugrah Narayan Singh and SP’s Richa Singh among others.
For a systematic and transparent counting of the votes cast, EVMs will be placed at each table booth wise. After one round, the second round of counting will start. Because the maximum numbers of 463 booths are in Phulpur seat, there will be 34 rounds of counting of votes for it. Similarly, in Pratappur, too, there will be 33 rounds of counting due to it having a total of 459 polling booths. The lowest 27 rounds of counting would take place for Meja, and even Karachhana would have the counting of votes completed in just 28 rounds, and so on, officials shared.
{{/usCountry}}For a systematic and transparent counting of the votes cast, EVMs will be placed at each table booth wise. After one round, the second round of counting will start. Because the maximum numbers of 463 booths are in Phulpur seat, there will be 34 rounds of counting of votes for it. Similarly, in Pratappur, too, there will be 33 rounds of counting due to it having a total of 459 polling booths. The lowest 27 rounds of counting would take place for Meja, and even Karachhana would have the counting of votes completed in just 28 rounds, and so on, officials shared.
{{/usCountry}}If the counting proceeds smoothly, poll results of the Meja seat are expected to come first, followed by Karachhana. After that, Bara Koraon and Allahabad South results are expected. The result of Phulpur, which has a maximum number of booths, is expected to come last.
Similarly, preparations are complete for the counting to be held at Mahuli Mandi premises in Pratapgarh that will decide the fate of 90 candidates in the fray, including leaders like Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra “Mona”, Apna Dal (Kameravadi) leader Krishna Patel, six-time MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya of Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) and former UP minister Rajendra Pratap Singh aka “Moti” of BJP on Thursday. According to the officials, the counting of votes will start at 8 am, and the first trend will come by 8.30 am, informed Mukesh Chandra, ADM.
A total of 2813 EVMs have been used in voting for seven assembly seats in the district. After voting, all EVMs were kept assembly-wise in the strong room of Mahuli Mandi amidst tight security. EVMs will be brought out to the counting tables after breaking the seal in the strong room in the presence of officers under the guard of armed CRPF personnel at 7:30 am, he added.
The counting rounds have been fixed by the District Election Officer Nitin Bansal for the counting of votes. For this, a minimum of 26 rounds of counting will be done in Rampur Khas seat, and its result is expected to come first. Similarly, counting of votes for Babaganj will be done in over 26 rounds, for Kunda in 28 plus rounds, Vishwanathganj in over 33 rounds, Pratapgarh Sadar in over 28 rounds, for Patti in 30 rounds, and Raniganj in 27 rounds.
Likewise, in Kaushambi the counting of votes to decide the fate of 41 candidates in the fray, including deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, Apna Dal (K) leader Pallavi Patel, SP leaders Indrajeet Saroj and Pooja Pal, will take place in New Mandi in Osa. The counting of votes for the Chail, Sirathu and Manjhanpur seats will be held at different places inside the same premises. All arrangements have been made for the process with 14 tables each placed for the respective assembly seats and a wire mesh installed in front of the counter. Apart from this, barricading has been set up for the agents to stand. There will also be a reserve team for counting votes to be held under CCTV cameras.