Counting of votes for the 81-member Jharkhand, as well as the 288-member ‘Maha’ Assembly elections, began on Saturday 8 am.

The counting of postal ballots will began at 8 am, followed by the counting of votes on EVMs at 8:30 am.

At 7 in the evening, MahaYuti miles ahead —

MahaYuti comprising BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP and Maha Vikas Aghadi consisting of Congress, Shiv Sena UBT and NCP-SP are engaged in a fierce fight for supremacy.

In addition, the Vachit Bahujan Aghadi, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Maharashtra Swarajya Paksha, and other smaller parties have also fielded their nominees making it a multi-party contest.

There are a total of 4,136 candidates comprising 3,771 men, 363 women and two others in the fray.

In all, 288 counting centres have been set up for 288 Assembly constituencies and one counting centre for Nanded Lok Sabha constituency.

Counting day for Jharkhand

At 7 evening, INC+ has a strong grip in Jharkhand —

Deputy Commissioners, SPs, and election observers inspected the counting centres on Friday, expressing satisfaction with the arrangements in Jharkhand. Authorities have appealed to the public to maintain calm during the process.

The main contest in the state is between the ruling JMM-led INDIA bloc and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed by the BJP.

The counting of votes will begin at 8 am and people will get to know by afternoon as to who is forming the next government in the state.

Both INDIA Bloc and NDA carried out high-octane aggressive campaigning for the two-phase elections in Jharkhand.

During the 35-day campaigning period, star campaigners from both sides organised more than 500 major rallies, focussing on issues deeply tied to Jharkhand’s socio-cultural fabric, such as ‘Roti, Beti, Maati (livelihood, women, and land)’, tribal identity, and populist welfare schemes.

Ahead of the result, both NDA and India Bloc expressed confidence that their alliance would form the next government in the state.

Most of the Exit Polls have predicted a win for the BJP and its allies in the Jharkhand Assembly elections. However, one Exit Poll forecast a win for the JMM-led alliance.

The first phase of the voting in Jharkhand on November 13, covering 43 constituencies, recorded a turnout of nearly 67%, while the second phase on November 20, covering 38 seats, recorded 68.45% voting.

(Compiled from syndicated feed)