With the deployment of additional police force, the counting of votes polled in Tehri and Haridwar lok Sabha constituencies went off peacefully at Maharana Pratap Sports College, Raipur on Friday. Around 600 Government officials headed by Assistant Returning Officers were assigned the task of counting votes polled in the Tehri and Haridwar Parliamentary constituencies.
The Government officials deputed as micro observers, counting supervisors and counting assistants reached the venue after 6 am and counting of votes began at 8 am amid tight security. The use of mobile phones was strictly prohibited at counting venue. At each of the 14 tables laid for each assembly constituency, one micro observer, one counting supervisor and one counting assistant were deployed apart from deployment of 11 assistant returning officers for completing the task of vote counting.
The counting agents of various political parties and independent candidates were issued entry pass to oversee the counting process and they began reaching the venue after 7 am. The counting of postal ballots and counting of votes in electronic voting machines began simultaneously at 8 am. The postal ballots were counted in the presence of gazetted officer. A total of 731 postal ballots were found invalid while 5346 were valid votes.
The first trend for the Tehri parliamentary constituency was declared by the election officer at around 10 am. Out of 5346 postal ballots, Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Mala Rajya laxmi Shah secured 3534 votes, while Saket Bahuguna of Congress party secured 1259 votes, 242 votes were secured by Anoop Nautiyal of Aam Aadmi Party while in 457 postal ballots voters had chosen the NOTA option.
The District Election Officer and returning officer for Tehri lok Sabha seat Dr BVRC Purushottam said that BJP candidate Mala Rajya laxmi Shah secured 4,46,733 votes and emerged victorious from the Tehri constituency. Saket Bahuguna of the Congress secured 2,54,230 votes and AAP candidate Anoop Nautiyal got 24,043 votes. Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate Shiv Prasad Devli secured 6,577 votes. A total of 16 candidates were in fray in the Tehri lok Sabha seat. In this constituency, 10,762 voters had opted option of none of the above (NOTA).