Super Sunday keeps everyone on tenterhooks

HYDERABAD: Five hours or perhaps six at the most, That is what the months-long hard work of the candidates, political parties and their workers at the Munugode Assembly constituency, will boil down to on ‘Super Sunday’.

The focus of attention will be the Food Corporation of India godown in Arjalabavi of Nalgonda village where the Election Commission of India has made elaborate arrangements for the counting of votes cast in the November 3 polling.

Chief electoral officer Vikas Raj on Saturday said that all arrangements were in place for secure and smooth counting of votes and declaration of the result.

The BJP and the TRS candidates are believed to be locked in a close contest, though most of the exit polls predicted a fairly comfortable win for the ruling party, while a couple of exit polls said it will be the BJP that will emerge the winner. All of them said the Congress will be in the third place.

Waiting nervously on Saturday were the three top contending candidates – Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy of the TRS, Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy of BJP, and Palvai Sravanthi of Congress.

Sravanthi said she will be visiting the counting centre on Sunday to check on the progress of the process while Rajgopal Reddy is expected to monitor the counting of votes from his camp office in Munugode town. The same is expected to be followed by Prabhakar Reddy with the TRS and the BJP candidates’ plans staying fluid as the result, despite what the exit polls have predicted.

None of the parties have planned any celebrations, with a muted start expected on Sunday at Telangana Bhavan in Jubilee Hills, S.P. Mookerjee Bhavan and Gandhi Bhavan, both in Nampally.  

Vikas Raj said that the EVMs will be opened at 7.30 am in the presence of an ECI observer, the candidates and election agents on Sunday. 

He said counting of votes will begin at 8 am with the postal ballots, followed by EVMs at 8.30 am. In each round of counting, the observer will cross check the result of two randomly selected polling stations with the result sheet on the table. After completion of EVM counting, mandatory counting of five randomly selected VVPATs slips will be taken up at the VVPAT counting booth.

He said 2,25,192 votes were polled, registering a 93.13 per cent polling in the 298 polling stations of the constituency. Electronically transmitted postal ballot system for service voters received by the returning officer till 8 am Sunday, would also be counted along with the postal ballots.

A separate hall with a 150 seating capacity is arranged for the media. The hall has a provision for dissemination of round-wise results with a mike-set and screen, the CEO said.

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