The early trends of vote counting for panchayat elections showed the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress in neck-to-neck fight while BJP did not do well. Candidates backed by the BSP were leading at most of the Zila panchayat seats. On some seats Independent candidates also registered victorious trends.
The counting process of the three tier panchayat polls had begun on Tuesday morning at all the six block headquarters and would last till Wednesday. As per the district officials it takes 36 to 40 hours for the whole process to get completed.
Mention worthy there are six blocks in Haridwar district where counting was held and polling was done on 21 Dec 27 Dec and 2nd January and repoll at one place was held on Monday. Election was done for a total of 47 seats of Zila panchayat, 308 seats of Gram Pardhan and 221 seats of Kshtriya Panchayat are in Haridwar district.
The first result of Zila panchayat seats had started coming from Bahadrabad block in the late afternoon where BSP supported candidate of Sohanpur-Sikroda Zila panchayat seat recorded his victory. BSP supported candidate Mohammad Sattar obtained total of 2902 votes and he won by 659 votes from his opponent. Notably Sattar is brother of former legislator Mohammad Shahzad. From Paharpur seat in Khanpur block , wife of congress leader Pranav Singh Champion, Devyani Singh was leading with 600 votes till evening.
Speaking to The Pioneer, district magistrate Harbans Singh Chugh said, “. Round wise Vote counting is in process and video recording is being done by the district administration. Some Zila panchayat seats will be cleared till Tuesday night while result of remaining seats will be announced till Wednesday evening.
As per the initial trends in vote counting, BSP supported candidates were leading in luxor block while Congress candidate and an independent had close battle in Khanpur block. BSP and Congress backed candidates are in close fight at most of the seats of Bahadrabad, Bhagwanpur, Narsen, and Roorkee blocks. BJP supported candidates showed good performance on a few seats.
All preparations had been made for the counting of three tier Panchayat elections. Under tight security cover the counting of ballot boxes began at Roorkee, Bhagwanpur and Narsen blocks at 8 in the morning. K l DAV college of Roorkee had been designated as the counting centre and in Bhagwanpur R N I College was selected. Manglaur Gur Mandi was cordoned for the Narsen block vote counting.
Speaking to The Pioneer, Joint Magistrate Mangesh Ghildiyal said, “Kl DAV college road had been declared the zero zone area. The parking area was ear marked at state inter college road and college campus. The management team of BSM inter college had also agreed to give their college campus for parking of election duty vehicles. Same way the vehicle parking for RNI college voting has been made in B D inter college on Chudiyala road.”
The counting for all the Gram Panchayats for Zila Panchayat seats was done simultaneously and after every round of counting the results were declared every 3 hours. The Urja Nigam had ensured the continuous electricity supply around the vote counting centres. Heavy police personnel including PAC were deployed in all sensitive areas of the district. A ban had been imposed on taking processions of winning candidates.