The counting of votes polled in high-stakes Jind bypoll will be held on Thursday at the multi-purpose hall of Arjun Stadium, Jind.

“Adequate security arrangements have been made at the counting centre and security arrangements have been ensured by installing 10 CCTV cameras,” said Virender Sehrawat, Returning Officer and Sub Divisional Magistrate.

The counting will begin at 8 am and the work of counting will be completed in 13 rounds.

About 75.77 polling percentage was recorded in bypoll to the Jind Assembly constituency held on Monday.

In the prestige poll battle, the key contenders were BJP’s Krishan Middha, son of late INLD MLA Hari Chand Middha, Congress’ sitting MLA from Kaithal, Randeep Surjewala, Jannayak Janta Party’s Digvijay Chautala, great grandson of former Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal and the Indian National Lok Dal’s Umed Singh Redu.

Twenty-one candidates including two women were in the fray.

During the bypoll, 174 EVMs were used on 174 booths. VVPAT machines were used for the first time in the bye-election so that the voter could get complete information about his vote.

Returning Officer and Sub Divisional Magistrate, Sehrawat said “14 tables are being set up for counting, and counting on each table would be carried out by a supervisor and a counting assistant.”

Sehrawat said that the counting of votes will be done in the presence of general observer Saurabh Bhagat.

The electronic voting machines used in the polling have been kept in the strong room and the strong room has been sealed under the supervision of the observer.

The process of counting will be kept completely transparent. To see the complete process of counting, big size LEDs would be installed outside the hall for the media, he added.

The bye-election to Jind assembly seat was necessitated following the demise of INLD’s MLA Hari Chand Middha in August last year. INLD’s Hari Chand Middha had represented the Jind seat for two consecutive terms in 2009 and 2014.