Poll results out today in shadow of Covid
Counting of votes for elections to four states and a Union territory to begin at 8am on Sunday
NEW DELHI: The results for elections in four states and a Union Territory will be announced on Sunday, with counting of votes set to begin early in the day amid elaborate arrangements by the poll watchdog and other officials to ensure strict adherence to Covid appropriate protocol as the country battles its worst ever wave of infections.
While polling in West Bengal was held in eight phases in March and April, the state of Assam voted in three. Elections in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry were held in a single phase on April 6.
Officials from the Election Commission of India said on Saturday that security has been heightened at counting centres where electronic voting machines (EVMS) and voterverifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) units have been kept in strong rooms.
Counting will begin at 8 am on Sunday.
Polling in the crucial state of West Bengal saw an intense and often vitriolic campaign by both the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the last two months. The Mamata Banerjeeled
TMC aims to keep the reigns of 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 – which also appears to have made significant gains -and the Left-congress-isf combine.
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. The party has long considered Bengal the last frontier, and a win in the state will complete its dominance of the east.
If the TMC manages to hold on — whichever party wins, the margin, if the opinion polls are any indication, will be slim — it will a remarkable achievement for chief minister Mamata Banerjee, whose party was weakened by desertions, faced significant anti-incumbency, and appeared to be behind the BJP for much of the campaign.
A party needs to cross the halfway mark – 147 -- in the House of 294 to emerge victorious.
While the Bengal contest is too close to call, projections were along expected lines in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
The polls predicted a sweep