With few hours being left for the counting exercise, contestants and their supporters are fully engrossed in the guesswork as to their political fortunes which remain sealed in the EVMs inside strong rooms of Jamshedpur Co-operative College.
Candidates and their supporters from Ghatshila and Baharagora will be able to know their new MlA much earlier than the other four Assembly seats from the East Singhbhum district during counting of votes at the Jamshedpur Cooperative College. A total of 75 candidates are in fray from the six Assembly seats in the East Singhbhum district.
Ghatshila (ST) constituency which had 69.25 percentage of votes will have counting for 18 rounds and the results is expected along with Baharagora, a general constituency between 1 and 1.30 pm.
Jamshedpur East, a general Assembly seat will have counting in 19 rounds and the result is also expected by 1.30 pm. The seat involves a triangular contest between BJP’s national vice-president and sitting MlA Raghubar Das, Congress Anand Bihari Dubey and JVM’s Abhay Singh. Jamshedpur East has 264 polling booths.
Results of Jamshedpur West and Potka will be announced simultaneously. Urban constituency Jamshedpur West will have 21 rounds of counting while Potka a reserved seat will have 20 rounds of counting. The results are expected between 1.30pm and 2 pm.
Jamshedpur West witnesses a close contest between Congress sitting MlA Banna Gupta and BJP’s veteran Saryu Roy while Potka witnesses a straight contest between BJP’s Meneka Sardar and JMM Sanjiv Sardar.
Jugsalai (the only SC reserved constituency) in the district will have 23 rounds (maximum) of counting and will be the last to witness announcement of results at 2 pm. This constituency is witnessing a triangular fight between sitting Ajsu candidate Ramchandra Sahis, JMM’s new face Mangal Kalindi and four times MlA Dulal Bhuiyan who is contesting on Congress ticket. Counting for postal ballots will be held first after starting of counting process at 8 am.
East Singhbhum deputy commissioner and district election officer Amitabh Kaushal said district administration is set for counting of votes of the elections tomorrow, ensuring the necessary security arrangement at the Jamshedpur Co-operative College which has been made the counting centre.
The halls will be in accordance with the six assembly areas. hour time. In each of the counting hall, government officials will be present. Beside the government staff, representatives of political parties representing the candidates will be allowed during the counting.
Meanwhile, East Singhbhum deputy commissioner and city SP Karthik S informed that there will be three-tier security checking manned by district police, Jharkhand Armed Police (JAP) and CRPF. Around 23 CCTVs have been installed at entrance and exit points and different strategic locations of the strongroom.
Around 41 magistrates have been deputed at the strongroom. Metal detectors have been installed at the main entrance gate and also near entrance gate to all the Assembly seats. Around 120 counting supervisors, 120 counting assistants, 132 microobservers and 1500 officials have been deputed by the administration for the counting.