Counting for Lok Sabha polls to start at 8am amid tight security cover

Nearly 7,000 officials will be engaged in the vote counting exercise for the Lok Sabha polls in the Capital on Tuesday, chief electoral officer P Krishnamurthy said. The exercise will start at 8am amid three-layer security at all centres, he said.

The counting centres are located at SKV Bharat Nagar, Chandni Chowk, ITI Nand Nagri, for North East Delhi, CWG Village Sports Complex, for East Delhi, Atal Adarsh Bengali Balika School in Gole Market, for New Delhi, Delhi Technical University at Shahbad Daulatpur, for North West Delhi, NSUT at Sector 3 in Dwarka, for West Delhi, and Jija Bai ITI for Women at Sirifort, for South Delhi.

An election official, requesting anonymity, said at each of the seven counting centres, nearly 1,000 personnel will be involved in the exercise and that last-minute preparations have been completed. Each centre will have 10 halls, where votes from each of the 10 assembly constituencies will be counted.

In each hall, there will be seven to 14 tables, the number depending on the voter turnout. Each table will be manned by a counting supervisor, a counting assistant, representatives of the candidates and a peon. The counting of votes at the centres will be supervised by returning officers and assistant returning officers. The postal ballots will be taken up for counting at 8am and the votes polled in the EVMs from 8.30am, the official said.

On the eve of vote counting, BJP leaders held a meeting with counting agents, giving them a brief training and asking them to be alert at the counting centres.

AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal has already asked the AAP-Congress counting agents to remain vigilant and stay put at the counting centres till the end of counting, even if their candidates seem to be losing the election in the initial trends.

An AAP leader, requesting anonymity, said the counting agents of the AAP have been trained and asked to keep a watch when the random matching of the (VVPAT) slips from different booths on the votes polled in the EVMs is done.

Delhi Congress chief Devender Yadav said all the counting agents of the party are fully prepared for the exercise. “Public surveys show that Congress and INDIA bloc will win the national election and will form the next government at the Centre. The INDIA bloc will win all seven seats in Delhi,” Yadav said.

All seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi went to the polls on May 25, in the sixth phase, logging a voter turnout of 58.7%, roughly 3.7 percentage points behind the 2019 figure of 60.6%.

Chandni Chowk reported a 58.6% turnout, East Delhi, 59.51%, New Delhi, 55.43%, North East Delhi, 62.89%, North West Delhi, 57.85%, South Delhi, 56.45%, and West Delhi, 58.79%.

The highest provisional turnout was reported from North East Delhi, which recorded 62.9%, but was lower than the 63.8% turnout in 2019. The lowest turnout was reported from New Delhi, which recorded 52.9% turnout, also down from 56.9% in 2019.

What candidates did

Meanwhile, candidates on Monday made a beeline for temples and organised religious events on the eve of the counting exercise. All seven MPs in Delhi currently are from the BJP for the past two terms and most exit polls have predicted a repeat.

The New Delhi candidate from the BJP, Bansuri Swaraj, visited the Gauri Shankar temple in Chandni Chowk on Monday morning. Her opponent, AAP’s Somnath Bharti spent his day with the party’s counting agents all day at a massive camp.

“Agents have been made aware of the technical things that happen during counting. Counting agents must ensure that the EVM boxes opened should be from the same booth. Counting agents must match the numbers of the control unit, ballot unit and VVPAT unit. All these things must be checked, like when the box was opened and closed for the last time. The information on the 17C form must be matched. We have prepared our counting agents in every way for all these things,” Bharti said.

Chandni Chowk constituency candidate Praveen Khandelwal organised reading of “Sunderkand”, a section from the Ramayana, for the most part of Monday evening, which he said was meant to seek blessings for the “victory of all NDA candidates across the country”.

Chandni Chowk Congress candidate JP Aggarwal, who has previously been MP from the constituency for three terms, was in his office all day, meeting party workers and counting agents.

North West Delhi BJP candidate Yogender Chandolia went to the Salasar Balaji temple in Rajasthan on Monday, while his opponent, Congress candidate Udit Raj, spent the day at a training camp for counting agents.