Counting on, norms flouted

CANDIDATES AND THEIR SUPPORTERS GATHERED IN LARGE NUMBERS, EVEN AS COPS STRUGGLED TO CONTROL THEM

LUCKNOW/AGRA: Despite restrictions in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19, large gatherings of candidates and their supporters were witnessed at most of the 829 centres where the counting of votes for the three-tier panchayat polls was underway in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.

Police personnel were seen having a tough time managing the crowd, even as the State Election Commission (SEC) on Sunday said the final results were expected to be available after Monday noon.

“As per the information available till now, as many as 16,510 village pradhans, 112,358 village ward members and 35,812 kshetra panchayat members have been declared elected so far,” a spokesman for the commission said in a written statement on Sunday evening.

An SEC official said, “The counting of votes has begun at all the centres after preparing bundles of ballot papers.” He said that all measures were being taken to enforce the Covid-19 protocols.

As per the order issued earlier, candidates and their agents were allowed to enter the counting centres only if they have tested negative for Covid-19 in the 48 hours prior to the commencement of the counting process or taken both doses of the vaccine.

However, physical distancing norms were flouted at most of the counting centres in Agra, Kasganj, Etah, Firozabad and Aligarh on Sunday.

In Etah, supporters of two candidates came to blows as the situation escalated and it was brought under control by the police, who disallowed victory processions.

The Supreme Court on Saturday had refused to stay the counting process. In a special urgent hearing, a bench of justices AM Khanwilkar and Hrishikesh Roy passed the order after taking note of several notifications and assurances of the SEC that the Covid-19 protocols will be followed.

The SEC official cited above said that only the overall results would be declared, and no party-wise results would be made available. “In UP, panchayat polls are not fought on party lines even though many political parties do back candidates and claim their victory accordingly,” he said.

The counting will determine the fate of over 1.2 million candidates who were in the fray for the posts of village pradhans, village ward members, kshetra panchayat ward members and zila panchayat ward members. Around 120 million rural voters participated in the four-phase voting exercise that ended on April 29. Voting for all the posts was held by ballot papers across 203,050 polling booths.