India News | LS Polls Counting: BJP Hopes for Clean Sweep Again in Gujarat, Cong Aims to Stop Saffron Juggernaut

Ahmedabad, Jun 3 (PTI) All necessary arrangements have been made for the counting of votes on Tuesday for polls to 25 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, where the BJP is looking to repeat a clean sweep while the Congress aims to stop the saffron juggernaut.

The counting of votes will be held from 8 am on Tuesday at 26 centres amid three-tier security arrangements, officials said.

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Elections to 25 out of the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat were held in a single phase on May 7.

More than 250 candidates contested the polls, which witnessed 60.13 per cent voter turnout.

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The BJP has already drawn first blood with Mukesh Dalal winning the Surat Lok Sabha seat unopposed after the nomination of Congress' Nilesh Kumbhani was rejected over irregularities in the signature of proposers and other candidates withdrew before the polls.

The BJP is looking to repeat its sweep of 2014 and 2019 in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

There will be one counting centre each in 24 Lok Sabha constituencies, while the Anand Lok Sabha will have two such centres, state Chief Electoral Officer P Bharathi said in a statement.

There will be 56 counting observers, 30 election officers and 180 assistant election officers deployed during the exercise, she said.

In addition to this, 614 assistant election officers have been assigned the responsibility for postal ballots, the statement said.

A micro-observer, a counting supervisor and a counting assistant have been assigned duty at each counting table, with two micro-observers placed in the counting hall. The entire process will be videographed, Bharathi said.

The strong room will be opened in the presence of the election officer/assistant election officer, candidates or their authorised representatives and observers appointed by the Election Commission of India.

The electronic voting machines (EVMs) will be taken out round-wise and brought to the counting hall, the statement said.

Prominent candidates include Union Home Minister Shah from Gandhinagar and his cabinet colleagues Mansukh Mandaviya and Parshottam Rupala from Porbandar and Rajkot, respectively.

During the campaign, the BJP had to face the ire of the Kshatriya community over a remark made by Rupala in Rajkot. He had claimed that several rulers from the community had "roti and beti" (marriage and trade) relations with the British and other foreign invaders.

Rupala was pitted against former Congress MLA Paresh Dhanani, who defeated him in the 2002 assembly polls.

Several leaders from the community had appealed to their brethren to forgive Rupala for the remark and vote for the BJP for the sake of the nation and PM Modi.

The Congress, which fought the Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), hopes this move to prevent the division of opposition votes will stop the BJP from repeating its sweeping performance of 2014 and 2019.

As part of the alliance, the Congress, which fielded four sitting and eight former MLAs, got 24 seats (including Surat), while the AAP got Bhavnagar and Bharuch.

The BJP's campaign, in a state considered its strongest base, was led by PM Modi and Shah.

For the Congress, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were among the star campaigners, along with Mallikarjun Kharge.

The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP's campaign saw rallies by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann as well as senior leaders Sanjay Singh and Gopal Yadav.

Sunita Kejriwal, the wife of the Delhi CM who is in jail in connection with an excise policy-linked case, also held a roadshow in Bharuch.

More than 14,000 uniformed men and women from the regular and reserve police, as well as the central armed police forces (CAPF), will be deployed at 26 counting centres to prevent untoward incidents, an official said.

"Apart from nearly 10,000 personnel from the local police, we will deploy 3,000 home guards, nine companies of the CAPF and 12 companies of State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) at these counting centres," Director General of Police, Law and Order Shamsher Singh said.

Each company usually comprises 80 to 90 armed personnel.

For enhanced security, a three-tier security system will be put in place at counting centres, Singh said.

"Personnel from the CAPF will be deployed inside the counting centres. While the SRP will guard the entire campus of the buildings, local police will be deployed outside the campus," he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)