Fate of all 89 candidates seeking elections from 9 Assembly constituencies of Indore district will finally be announced on Sunday following counting of votes from Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).
Though all exit poll surveys in the country have forecast return of the BJP in the state for the third consecutive time, the Congress party has disapproved of these surveys and hoping to make a comeback in the state after a gap of 10 years.
As far as assembly constituencies of Indore are concerned, the Congress is pinning hopes from five assembly constituencies – vis-a-vas Indore-3, Rau, Sanwer, Indore-5 and Deepalpur respectively. Of the five assembly constituencies, the Congress party as per its calculations and sensing the mood of voters is hoping to wrest seat from the BJP in Indore-5 and Rau which currently being represented by the minister of state for health Mahendra Hardia and Jeetu Jirati respectively.
In the last Assembly elections, the BJP candidates had emerged victorious from 6 assembly constituencies – vis-a-vas Indore-1, Indore-2, Indore-4, Indore-5 and Rau and Mhow, while the Congress candidates had emerged victorious from Deepalpur, Indore-3 and Sanwer assembly constituencies.
Meanwhile, the stage is set for the counting of votes today. The Nehru stadium where counting of votes will take place sharply at around 8 am has been converted into an invincible fortress with a three-layer of security.
Briefing media persons about arrangements made by the district administration for counting of votes and securing measures taken at the vote counting venue, district collector Akash Tripathi said EVM machines will be taken out of the strong room in presence of polling agents of various political parties at 7.50 am.
Initially, vote counting of postal ballots would be carried out at around 7.30 am and after half-an-hour of, counting of votes from the EVM machines will start. There would be 14 tables and 2 tables for counting of postal ballots for each Assembly constituency, collector said adding that unlike previous years, necessary steps have been taken to bring about transparency in the counting of postal ballots.
Out of about 12,000 postal ballot papers, majority of postal ballot papers have already been received by the administration, while the remaining ballot papers will likely to be received by 7.30 am on Sunday. Talking about the security measures taken at the vote counting venue, DIG Rakesh Gupta said that about 500-600 police jawans will manning security of the venue at different level so as to prevent any untoward incident at the vote counting venue.
Collector hoped that trends from various Assembly constituencies will start trickling at around 11 am and by about 2 pm, results of majority of Assembly constituencies should be announced, he added.