New Delhi: All eyes are on counting centres as the verdict of general elections will be announced on Tuesday. The exit polls on Saturday predicted a landslide victory for the BJP-led NDA despite the opposition parties forming the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A). The counting of votes across 543 Lok Sabha seats will begin at 8 am.
Under Rule 54 A of the Conduct of Elections Rules 1961, the counting of postal ballot papers shall be started first at the Returning Officer’s (RO) table. Counting of votes from EVMs can begin on scheduled time if there is no postal ballot paper in the constituency.
The average of 12 exit polls released on Saturday showed that the NDA is likely to claim victory in around 366 seats, which is way ahead of the halfway mark of 272. The INDIA bloc officially claimed that it would get 295 seats in the polls but exit poll survey hinted that it might not cross 150-200.
The Election Commission revealed on Monday that 64.2 crore voters of the 96.8 crore registered voters cast their ballots during the Lok Sabha elections that spanned from April 19 to June 1.
Of the 64.2 crore voters, 31.2 crore were women. Addressing a press meet, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said on Monday afternoon that Jammu and Kashmir recorded it highest turnout in four decades with 51.05 per cent in the Kashmir valley and 58.58 per cent overall.
Compared to 540 repolls in 2019, only 39 repolls took place in this year’s elections. Kumar said more than 68,000 monitoring teams and 1.5 crore election and security personnel were deployed during the polls.

  BJP, Congress, Election, INDIA

Agencies