Counting in Covid cloud, all eyes on Verdict 2021
Electoral outcomes in Bengal, Assam, TN, Kerala, Puducherry to be declared today
NEW DELHI: Votes for 822 assembly seats spread across four states and a Union territory will be counted on Sunday after the largest electoral exercise amid the pandemic, with elaborate Covid-19 arrangements being put in place by the poll watchdog as the country battles the world’s worst outbreak of the infectious disease.
The Election Commission of India, which has been criticised for allowing political parties to hold rallies with thousands in attendance with little to no regard for Covid-appropriate behaviour, said on Saturday it has taken several measures to limit the threat of the outbreak at its counting centres across the country.
The counting of votes will begin at 8am on Sunday.
Polling in West Bengal, held over eight phases from March 27 to April 29, saw an intense and often vitriolic campaign by both the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC aims to retain its stronghold, with the opposition BJP emerging as the incumbent party’s main challenger in the state.
A majority of exit polls released after the eighth and final round of voting on Thursday suggested that the ruling TMC may have an edge over the BJP, although the results may be too close to call. The Leftcongress-indian Secular Front combine is projected to be a distant third, the exit polls indicated.
If the BJP manages to pull off a win, it will be a remarkable achievement for a party that won only three of the 294 assembly seats in 2016, although it won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2019.
If the TMC manages to hold on to power for a third term -despite the likelihood of a slim margin -- it will be a feat for chief minister Banerjee, whose party was weakened by defections to the BJP and is facing significant anti-incumbency.
A party needs to cross the halfway mark – 147 -- in the 294member assembly to emerge victorious. However, votes will be counted for 292 seats as polling in two seats of Murshidabad district was revoked after the deaths of two candidates of the TMC due to Covid-19.
Both contenders exuded confidence on Saturday.