With less than 24 hours to go for the
results of the 16th Lok Sabha election, the district administration has
fortified the Gorkha Ranga Manch Bhawan, the counting venue near
Chowrasta in Darjeeling.
Counting of votes from the three
assembly constituencies of Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Kurseong will be
conducted at the Bhawan, while Siliguri College is the counting venue
for votes from Siliguri, Naxalbari-Matigara, Phansidewa and Chopra.
About 400 policemen and two platoons of
the central paramilitary force have been deployed at the Darjeeling
venue. The strong room already has a three-fold security arrangement in
place.
“We have put in place all necessary
security arrangements for the counting scheduled for tomorrow as per the
guidelines of the Election Commission of India. We want to ensure a
peaceful counting process. Further, we have already enforced Section 144
within a 200m radius of the counting venue,” informed Darjeeling SP
Akhilesh Chaturvedi.
The district administration held an
all-party meeting this afternoon that included counting agents of the
parties that contested in the election. The agents were briefed about
the rules of the counting process.
Unlike in previous elections, only 38
tables will be set up for the counting process this time. There will be
14 tables for Darjeeling, 11 for Kalimpong and 13 for Kurseong. In the
preceding election, there were 56 tables in total for the counting
exercise. The new move has forced some parties, who have already
acquired permission and identity cards from the administration for
appointing counting agents, to cut down on manpower.
Assistant Returning Officer Puspak Roy
said, “The counting process will start at eight tomorrow morning. Postal
ballots will be counted first after which the EVMs will be opened.”
According to the ARO, government
employees and party leaders who are guarded by security personnel or
those holding elected posts such as sitting MPs, MLAs or municipality
chairman will not be allowed to become counting agents.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which is backing SS Ahluwalia, expressed confidence of the BJP candidate emerging victorious.
“The contest was good this time, but we
are confident of our party-backed candidate winning and becoming the
next MP from Darjeeling,” said GJM assistant secretary Binay Tamang
although he declined on commenting on the margin of victory.
Darjeeling district committee Trinamool
Congress vice-president Gopal Chettri sounded equally confident of party
candidate Bhaichung Bhutia winning the race. “We are 100 per cent sure
our candidate will emerge victorious tomorrow. The winning margin could
be between 30,000 and 40,000 votes,” he claimed.
Independent candidate Mahendra P Lama,
who could be the deciding factor between the GJM-BJP and the TMC-GNLF
alliance with his own share of votes, did not wish to sound
overconfident.
He said, “I am confident of doing well, but let us all wait for the results tomorrow.”
Ahluwalia arrived in Darjeeling on
Wednesday while Bhutia and Lama are expected in town Friday just ahead
of the announcement of the final results.(EOIC)