U'khand local polls: Make or mar for Cong; Litmus test for BJP

Counting of votes for Uttarakhand's local body elections has begun. The 84 seats of the state's urban local bodies went for polls on Sunday as people queued up at polling booths to vote through ballot paper.

"The counting of votes for all urban local bodies is underway. First, the ballots for all respective wards will be counted. For Dehradun's municipal corporation, there will be eight rounds of counting," said S A Murugesan, the District Magistrate of Dehradun told ANI.

Murugersan added that the counting for mayoral candidates and other candidates will take place simultaneously. He further assured that all security measures are in place at counting stations, adding that security personnel have been deployed since morning.

The local body elections of Uttarakhand are important as the hill-state is under the rule of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which came to power after displacing the Congress government in last year's Assembly elections, winning 57 of the 70 seats.

While these polls are seen as the BJP's report card of sorts, for the Congress party they are a matter of make or mar. Also, the results will indicate the electoral mood of the northern state ahead of next year's Lok Sabha elections.

More than 23 lakh voters participated in the voting process. A little less than 5000 candidates are in the fray.

"The counting is being conducted round wise and every round will take approximately two hours," the DM said, adding that ballot paper counting takes significantly more time than EVMs.