Counting of votes in Garoth bypolls today

The counting of votes polled on June 27 in the by-election for Garoth Vidhan Sabha constituency in Mandsaur district will be held on June 30. 

Counting will be held at 2 rooms of Rajiv Gandhi Government College, Mandsaur from 8 am. Before that, the EVMs will be taken out from the strongroom amidst tight security. Counting will be held on 14 tables.

Each room will have 7 tables each. Counting will be held in 19 rounds. Information about votes polled by the candidates will be given after every round. 

One candidate each of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party and 6 independents are in the election fray.

Postal ballots will be counted first from 8 am. Only those postal ballots will be taken up for counting which will be received at the counting venue by 8 am.

Upendra Narayan who has been appointed as General Observer by the Election Commission of India will also be present at counting centre. Three tables will be placed in addition to 14 tables for counting. One of these tables will be for Election Officer (RO), one for Assistant Election Officer (ARO) and one for counting of ballot papers. RO and ARO will sit in different rooms. For counting, 68 officers and employees have been deployed. Every table will have one counting assistant, supervisor, micro observer and peon.

There would be 3-tier security arrangements at counting venue. Only pass-holders will be allowed inside the counting centre, where cameras, mobiles etc. will be banned. Video-recording of counting will also be held. It is noteworthy that polling percentage was 71.36 in the by-election. Counting of 1,55,934 votes will be held.

In Vidhan Sabha election-2013, 1,63,892 votes were cast. Of these, 88,525 votes (55.50 per cent) were cast in favour of Rajesh Yadav of the Bharatiya Janata Party and 62,770 (39.35 percent) to Subhash Kumar Sojatiya of the Indian National Congress. Rajesh Yadav had won by a margin of 25,755 votes.