The Election Commission of India on Tuesday said that most of the results are expected by tonight, reiterating its earlier statement that the outcome of the Bihar Assembly polls will be delayed.
On a question if the counting will go on till tomorrow, the poll panel replied that they have to follow the procedure as laid down by the Election Commission. “It is expected that most of the results would be available tonight, maybe some early or some late in the night,” it said.
The poll panel, however, added that the constituency results will be updated fast as various places have completed counting 50% of the votes, while many others have completed 75%. It added that almost two-thirds of the votes have been counted so far. “2.7 crore of around 4.11 crore EVM [electronic voting machine] have been counted as part of the process,” the poll body said.
It further said that 4,858 scheduled rounds of counting out of 7,737 have been completed so far. Taking about the margin of votes, the poll body said 18 seats in Bihar had a margin of less than a thousand. Fifteen Assembly constituencies had a margin of 1,000-5,000 votes. The number of seats that had a margin of votes between 5,000-10,000 was 67. A total of 108 seats had a margin of votes above 10,000.
The commission further said that 1.6 lakh postal ballots were sent to the service electorates. It said that 52,000 postal ballots were cast by senior citizens above 80 years of age and persons with disabilities.
The poll body also rubbished allegations of stopping the counting of ballots in Bihar as “not true”, adding that it was not substantiated.
As of 7 pm, the Election Commission has declared results for 28 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party has won 9 seats, followed by the Rashtriya Janata Dal with eight. The Janata Dal (United) has secured five seats and the Congress and the Vikassheel Insaan Party two. One seat each has gone to the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
The majority mark to form the government is 122 in the 243-seat Bihar Assembly. The BJP looks set to emerge as the single-largest party in the state, according to the election trends.
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