The State Government is all geared up for counting of votes for its 14 parliamentary constituencies on Thursday amidst security alerts sounded by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The alert issued by the MHA on Tuesday assumes significance for a State like Jharkhand, where 18 of 24 districts are Left Wing Extremism-affected.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) L Khiangte on Wednesday said that the counting at all the 14 counting stations, one in each of the Lok Sabha constituency here, will be done under strict security provided by Central forces.
The MHA on Wednesday sent an alert to the Director General of Police (DGP) and Chief Secretary of all the states in India regarding possibilities of eruption of violence on the day of the counting. The polls in Jharkhand were held in four phases without any incident of violence reported from any part of the State. However, three security personnel sustained injuries after the CPI (Maoist) blew up low intensity Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) in Kharsawan on Monday, only a day after the polling ended in Jharkhand.
“The counting process will begin at 8am on Thursday. A total of 1,442 tables will be used for the counting process in the State. The strong rooms will open in presence of the candidates, their agents and the concerned election observers,” said Khiangte.
A press communiqué from Khiangte’s office said that the final results may get delayed by at least four hours on Thursday as all the slips from the VVPAT machines will be counted separately and many more protocols will have to be followed as directed by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Each strong room will have separate rooms dedicated to the assembly segments that come in the periphery of the concerned parliamentary constituency. The votes for Ranchi constituency will be counted in 134 tables, the maximum in the State. On the other hand, the counting for Lohardaga constituency will be done in 72 tables, the least in the State.
The elections in Jharkhand started on April 29 and concluded on May 19.
As many as 229 candidates are in fray for the 14 seats here this year. In 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 12 of 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand, the highest ever by any single party. This time around, the BJP is faced against ‘Mahagathbandhan’, an alliance of Congress party, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Oozing with confidence, the BJP has said that it expects a victory in at least 13 of 14 seats this time.
