Congress supporters gather outside party office ahead of Assembly election results

Ahead of the Assembly election results for five states, Congress supporters gathered outside the party office and burst crackers on Sunday morning.

The votes for the legislative assemblies of four states -- Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana -- will be counted amid tight security arrangements on Sunday, in the final stretch of the battle billed as the semifinal before the mega final in 2024.

The votes will be counted for 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 90 seats in Chhattisgarh, 119 in Telangana and 199 seats in Rajasthan.

However, the counting of votes in Mizoram, which also went to polls along with four other states last month, has been pushed back to December 4, Monday, the Election Commission (EC) informed earlier.

The counting of votes at designated centres will begin at 8 am on Sunday.

The polling in five states, straddling the north, east and southern parts of the country, is tipped to set the course of the political headwinds going into the Lok Sabha elections next year.

"All arrangements for the counting of votes in Chhattisgarh have been completed and officials in adequate numbers have been posted for the purpose in all the 90 assembly constituencies," the state's chief electoral officer, Reena Baba Saheb Kangale, told reporters on Saturday.

"The counting of votes will start from 8 am in all 90 assembly constituencies. For the counting process, we have assigned 90 returning officers, 416 assistant returning officers, 4596 counting personnel and 1698 micro-observers," Kangale added.

While the exit polls were almost unanimous in giving an edge to the Congress in Telangana, a few predicted a close contest in Rajasthan, giving the Congress a slender lead.

The polls, held months before the Lok Sabha polls, are crucial for BJP and Congress for various reasons.