Jharkhand Assembly Polls: All arrangements in place for counting of votes

Ranchi, December 22:

All arrangements are in place for tomorrow’s counting for 81 Assembly seats in Jharkhand. Chief Electoral Officer Vinay Kumar Choubey told AIR that counting will begin at 8 in the morning and the first trend will be available after the 1st hour of the counting.

AIR Correspondent reports that three-tier security arrangements have been made for all counting centres. Jawans of central paramilitary forces will be deployed at all counting centres. Counting centres have been set up in all the 24 district headquarters of the state. Postal ballots will be counted first followed by votes of  EVMs.

Micro observers will be deployed for each counting centre. Agents of different political parties will also be there during counting. The final result will be declared after the counting of slips of five VVPATs which will be randomly selected for each Assembly constituency.
Polling for the 81-member State Assembly took place in five phases between 30th November and 20th December.

The BJP is hoping to retain power in the state. In 2014, the BJP had won 37 seats, while its ally AJSU secured a win in five Assembly seats. However, the Opposition Grand Alliance led by Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) which includes Congress and RJD, is hoping to unseat the BJP.