Arrangements made for Delhi civic polls vote count

Elaborate arrangements have been made for the counting of votes cast in Delhi's municipal elections at 35 centres on Wednesday, an election official said.

The ballot counting will begin at 8 a.m. and the trends would be available within an hour, he added.

"We have made elaborate arrangements. Counting will take place at 35 centres across Delhi. Trends and results will be announced from the counting centres," Delhi's State Election Commissioner S.K. Srivastava told IANS.

Srivastava said 16 ballot counting centres have been set up for the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, six for the East Delhi Municipal corporation, and 13 for the South Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Voting to pick three new municipal corporations in Delhi took place on Sunday, in which 54 per cent of the 1.32 crore electorate exercised their franchise till 5.30 p.m. when polling ended in 270 wards of the three municipal corporations.

Polling did not take place in two wards -- Maujpur in east Delhi and Sarai Pipal Thala in north Delhi -- where a candidate each of the Samajwadi Party died.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were the three main contenders in the fray.

A total of 2,537 candidates were in the fray for the 104 seats each of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation and the South Delhi Muncipal Corporation, and 64 seats of the East Delhi Municipal Congress.

The three civic bodies cover 68 of the 70 constituencies of the Delhi assembly.. Two other smaller civic bodies are the Delhi Cantonment Board and the New Delhi Municipal Council.

--IANS

am/ruwa/vt