Gorakhpur: Vote counting for 28 Legislative Council (MLC) seats across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Karnataka began on Tuesday. Polling for these seats was held on October 23, and full results are expected by Tuesday evening.
Source: ANI via LatestLY
Security was tightened around the counting centre in Gorakhpur, with multiple layers of barricading and the deployment of police personnel, ANI reported. Of the 28 seats, 11 are in Uttar Pradesh, eight in Bihar, five in Maharashtra and four in Karnataka.
Source: Nation Press
How the seats break up
In Uttar Pradesh, polling was held for five Graduates' constituencies — Lucknow, Varanasi, Agra, Meerut and Allahabad-Jhansi — and six Teachers' constituencies — Lucknow, Varanasi, Agra, Meerut, Bareilly-Moradabad and Gorakhpur-Faizabad. Nation Press reported 14,81,310 registered voters and 152 candidates in the state. In Bihar, eight seats were contested — the Graduates' constituencies of Patna, Darbhanga, Tirhut and Kosi and the Teachers' constituencies of Patna, Darbhanga, Tirhut and Saran — with 150 candidates in the fray.
In Maharashtra, 182 candidates are contesting five seats: the Graduates' constituencies of Pune, Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and the Teachers' constituencies of Pune and Amravati. Karnataka's four seats — South-East Graduates', West Graduates', North-East Teachers' and Bengaluru Teachers' — cover 17 districts, with 43 candidates in the fray.
Karnataka: a test for Congress and the BJP-JD(S) alliance
Counting for Karnataka's four seats began amid heightened security, with the results expected to indicate the ruling Congress's support base among graduates and teachers and to test the electoral coordination between the Opposition BJP and JD(S) alliance partners. The BJP currently holds three of the four seats, while Congress holds the Bengaluru Teachers' seat; the BJP has fielded candidates in three constituencies and its ally JD(S) in Bengaluru Teachers'. According to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka, turnout was 73.58 per cent in South-East Graduates', 75.62 per cent in West Graduates', 86.97 per cent in North-East Teachers' and 81.98 per cent in Bengaluru Teachers'.
Source: ANI via LatestLY
Candidates react as counting gets under way
BJP's Lucknow Graduates' candidate Awanish Kumar Singh told ANI he was confident of victory, crediting BJP workers for facilitating the voting process. Samajwadi Party Teachers' constituency candidate Sushil Kumar urged the administration to ensure the integrity and impartiality of the counting process, saying no external pressure should be allowed to influence the proceedings.
In Patna, where counting for the Patna Graduates' and Patna Teachers' constituencies is taking place at Bankipur Government Girls' Higher Secondary School, Jan Suraaj candidate Anuj Singh alleged that no CCTV cameras had been installed in the counting area and that conditions for counting agents were poor. Singh said he had raised the matter with the Returning Officer. The allegation had not been independently confirmed at the time of publication.