Assembly election results: Fate of five states to be sealed on Tuesday

NEW DELHI: The wait for the outcome of assembly election results in five states — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram — will be over on Tuesday morning as the counting of votes starts from 8 in the morning.

While the BJP hopes to retain Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the Congress is confident of making government in Rajasthan. The exit polls have predicted a clear win for the Congress in Rajasthan, however, they have been divided over the outcome in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

In Telangana, the TRS is the favourite to win the election as per exit polls prediction. In Mizoram, too, would see a keen contest between the two major parties, the Congress and the MNF.

Rajasthan

Nearly 20,000 government staff will be deployed for counting of votes for the Rajasthan Assembly elections tomorrow. The counting will take place at 35 centres including two centres each in Jaipur and Jodhpur. Voting for 199 of the total 200 assembly seats in the state took place on December 7.

In 2013 assembly election, BJP had won 163 seats, Congress 21, BSP 3, NPP 4 and independents and others 9 seats.

Madhya Pradesh

The counting for the assembly election results will start at 8 am tomorrow and it will be done in around 22 rounds. Fifteen thousand officers and workers will be put on duty for the task.

In order to ensure transparency, the machines which did not give clear results due to malfunctioning during mock polls will be taken out in the last round and the results will be tallied with the VVPAT slips.

There will be 51 counting centres with each district headquarters having one centre. Kotma assembly constituency in Anup Pur district will have least number counting rounds, 15, because of the size of the constituency and longest will be in Indore 5 constituency with 32 rounds. Every Assembly will be counted on 14 tables at one go. Overseer, returning officer and collectors will be present with the candidates before the opening of strong rooms.

As much as 75 per cent voting was recorded in Madhya Pradesh on the November 28, the day of polling. As many as 2,899 candidates were in the fray including 250 women and five third gender candidates. Out of a total of 65,367 polling booths spread across the state, 3,046 booths were completely managed by women poll officials.

Chhattisgarh

Tight security arrangements have been made at the counting centres in all 27 districts, particularly the Naxal-affected ones, where voting was held in two phases on November 12 and 20 to elect a new 90-member Assembly.

As many as 5,184 counting personnel and 1,500 micro-observers have been appointed for smooth conduct of the process.

The state had recorded 76.60 per cent voter turnout.

Several exit polls have predicted a neck-and-neck fight between the big Ajit Jogi's Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) Raman Singh's BJP, while some have projected a victory for the Rahul Gandhi-led party.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is seeking a fourth straight term in office, the Congress is aiming to stage a comeback after being out of power for the last 15 years.

The fate of 1,079 contestants, including the chief minister, his 11 ministers and state presidents of the BJP and the Congress will be decided Tuesday.

In the 2013 elections, the BJP won 49 seats, the Congress 39, while one seat each was bagged by the BSP and an Independent.

Counting of votes will also take place in Telangana and Mizoram. The exit polls have predicted a clean sweep for TRS in Telangana. In Mizoram, both the Congress and the MNF are vying to form a government in the state.

The trends will start pouring in from 8 am and a clear picture is expected to emerge in all the states by 11 am.

The results will test the popularity of incumbent governments in Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana as also the potency of a challenge of the opposition.

The BJP is in power in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the Congress in Mizoram and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) in Telangana.

The Election Commission has set up a secure facility for disseminating trends and results through its new website http://eciresults.nic.in.

(With inputs from agencies)