Election Commission set for counting of votes in Assam amidst floods in state

The stage is set for counting of votes for Assam's 14 Lok Sabha seats to decide the fate of 143 candidates including Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Lok Sabha Deputy leader of opposition Gaurav Gogoi.

Counting will start from 8 am on Tuesday in 152 halls across 52 centres in the state and adequate security arrangements have been put in place to ensure smooth conduct of counting and announcement of results, an election official said.

The state's 13 districts are facing the brunt of floods and the respective district authorities have been directed to take suitable measures to ensure smooth counting of votes.

The state election department is coordinating with the Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to ensure uninterrupted power and internet connectivity.

A total of 152 counting rooms will be operational, equipped with 1,941 counting tables for both postal ballots and EVMs while 5,823 counting personnel and 64 general observers will be involved in the exercise.

The counting process is expected to be completed in 10 to 28 rounds.

Additional security forces have been deployed in the sensitive areas to prevent any untoward incidents following the announcement of results.

Polling were held in three phases on April 19, April 26 and May 7 for Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Kaziranga, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Nagaon, Diphu (ST), Darrang-Udalguri, Karinganj, Silchar (SC), Barpeta, Kokrajhar, Dhubri and Guwahati.

The NDA alliance in the state contested in all the 14 seats with the BJP in 11 seats while its alliance partners - the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) - contested in two seats and the United Peoples' Party Liberal (UPPL) in one.

The Congress, a constituent of the 16-party United Opposition Forum Assam (UOFA), contested in 13 seats and left the Dibrugarh seat for the Assam Jatiya Parishad while the AIUDF contested in three and AAP in two.Besides Sonowal and Gogoi, the other prominent contestants are sitting BJP MPs Topon Gogoi, Pradan Barua, Dilip Saikia, Kripanath Malla, BJP's Rajya Sabha MP Kamakhya Tasa, Assam minister Parimal Suklabaidya and party MLA Ranjit Dutta.

The other prominent candidates are Congress sitting MP Pradyut Bodoloi, AIUDF president and sitting MP Badruddin Ajmal, CPI(M) MLA Manoranjan Talukdar and the two women candidates of both BJP and Congress in Guwahati Bijuli Kalita Medhi and Mira Borthakur Goswami.

Assam registered an overall poll turnout of 81.56 per cent of the total 2.45 crore eligible electorate with women voters registering a marginally higher turnout of 81.71 per cent as against 81.42 male while 18.81 per cent of the third gender exercised their franchise in all three phases in the state.

In the outgoing Lok Sabha, BJP held nine seats, Congress three, AIUDF and an independent one each from the state.