Counting of votes would be held on Tuesday in Assembly byelection to 28 seats in Madhya Pradesh, where the fate of Shivraj Singh Chouhan government hangs in the balance, and 30 seats in 10 other states in the first major pan-India electoral exercise amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The counting will begin at 8am, and as per the Election Commission’s Covid-19 guidelines, a candidate, his poll agent and counting agent can remain present in the counting hall, officials said, adding various measures have been taken to ensure social distancing and avoid crowding.
While the ruling BJP needs at least eight more MLAs for a simple majority in the MP Assembly, the Congress will be hoping to regain its turf as it had sitting MLAs in 27 seats out of 28 in the state where bypolls were held.
Overall, the Congress had sitting MLAs in 42 seats out of 58, while the BJP had seven. The saffron party is fielding over 30 candidates who had won from the Congress ticket but switched sides and resigned, necessitating the bypolls.
In Uttar Pradesh, it will a test of popularity for the Yogi Adityanath government as the BJP, which has a comfortable majority in the Assembly, is contesting on seven seats – six of which it had won in the last election while one was with the Samajwadi Party.
Counting of votes will be held in eight seats in Gujarat, four seats in Manipur and one seat in Haryana, all of which were with the Congress; one seat in Chhattisgarh which was with Ajit Jogi’s Janata Congress; two seats in Jharkhand which were held by the Congress and its ally JMM; two seats in Karnataka which were with Congress and the JD(S).
Also, votes will be counted in two seats in Nagaland held by NPF and NDPP, one seat in Telangana, which had been won by TRS, and two seats in Odisha held by the BJD and BJP.
Moderate to high turnout was recorded in the byelections held amid extensive precautionary measures due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Voting in all the seats took place on November 3 except in Manipur, where it was held on November 7.
Besides, counting of votes will be held in Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha seat bypolls in Bihar, where the assembly election results will also be out on Tuesday.
The byelection had been necessitated due to the death of JD(U) MP Baidyanath Mahto.
MADHYA PRADESH
The counting will be held in 19 districts. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, a total of 70.27 percent voter turnout was recorded during the bypolls which were contested by 355 candidates, including 12 ministers.
The BJP with 107 MLAs in MP assembly with an effective strength of 229 needs eight more MLAs for a simple majority.
The Congress has 87 legislators in the House.
It will be also a test of the Jyotiraditya Scindia factor as the scion of the erstwhile royal family of Gwalior had quit the Congress with his loyalist MLAs, who are now fighting on BJP tickets.
The result is also crucial for former chief minister Kamal Nath, who lost power in the state seven months ago after the revolt by Scindia.
