LS polls: Counting of votes across 24 centres in Jharkhand

Counting for the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand will begin at 8 am across 24 districts amid tight security, officials said.

The counting process and announcement of results, however, are expected to be delayed by several hours this time as the outcomes of five assembly segments per Lok Sabha constituency will be tallied with VVPAT slips, an Election Commission release said here Wednesday, quoting Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) L Khiangte.

EC sources said that the counting centers at Dumka, Godda, Hazaribag, Ranchi and Jamshepdur have been categorized as sensitive due to political and social reasons, adding, more security force would be deployed there.

Twenty companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), apart from thousands of state police personnel would be deployed to maintain law and order during the counting process, L Khiangte said.

In addition, 25 companies of state police will be deployed is the districts where counting is scheduled, the EC official said.

The counting process will start with postal ballots, he said.

Once the counting process (votes in EVMs) is completed, the voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips of five randomly selected assembly segments in every Lok Sabha constituency will be counted and compared with the EVM votes, the EC official said.

He said that all preparations are in place for the counting process, adding, approval from the ECI has been received for the counting places, counting halls and layout plans for all the counting rooms.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made for every counting centre, he said, adding central armed forces are continuously guarding the strongrooms.

The strongrooms will be opened in presence of candidates, agents and observers on the counting day (Thursday) and everything will be videographed.

An estimated 66.53 per cent of the total 2,24,04,179 electorate had cast their votes in the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. Elections were held in the state in four phases from April 29.

Among the electorate, there were 1,06,65,304 female and 231 third gender voters.

The polling percentage was 63.82 per cent in 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Polling in all the four phases passed off peacefully.

In all, 229 candidates, including 25 women, had been in the fray for the 14 Lok Sabha seats.