Voters standing in queues to cast their votes in Ellenabad. (Express Photo: Manoj Dhaka) The counting of votes in the Ellenabad Assembly constituency began at Chaudhary Devi Lal University in Sirsa district headquarters at 8 am Tuesday.
Election Commission officials will conduct 16 rounds of counting before completing the counting of votes process. Over 81 per cent of polling took place on October 30 for the bypoll. As part of the procedure, ballot papers will first be counted. Subsequently, in each of the 16 rounds of counting, 14 EVMs shall be opened in one go.
The bypoll is being seen as a triangular contest between INLD’s Abhay Chautala, BJP-JJP’s Gobind Kanda and Congress’ Pawan Beniwal. Observers of the three main candidates have reached the counting centre.
In total, there were 19 candidates who contested the bypoll.
INLD’s Abhay Chautala’s resignation in solidarity with the farmerss ongoing agitation against three central farm legislations necessitated the bypoll.
All three top contenders of the bypoll are hoping for a victory. While INLD’s Abhay Chautala said, “It is going to be victory of farmers and people of Ellenabad constituency”, Congress’ Pawan Beniwal said, “It is the time when people of Ellenabad have decided that which side they would like to go”. BJP-JJP’s Gobind Kanda, meanwhile, said, “People of Ellenabad shall celebrate two Diwalis this time, first on November 2 (today) and another on November 4.”
The Ellenabad constituency is mainly defined as a rural area and majority of the voters stay in villages. The total number of voters in Ellenabad constituency is 1,85,869, including 98,930 male and 86,639 female as per the website of the state’s chief electoral officer. Ellenabad constituency has a total of 190 polling stations of which 166 are in rural areas and 24 in urban areas. In the 2019 Assembly polls, Ellenabad had 1,81,021 registered voters. Due to the majority of rural population among the electorate, it is going to be a tough contest for the ruling dispensation’s candidate, since the BJP-JJP alliance is already facing immense opposition from the farmer community due to the ongoing agitation against the three central farm legislations.
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