Counting begins in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur

New Delhi, Feb 27: Counting of votes polled in the assembly elections in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur began this morning amid tight security.

Early trends have already started pouring in and all the results are expected to be available within a few hours.

Counting was also on for the votes cast in the by-elections to the Lok Sabha seats in Amritsar (Punjab) and Tehri Garhwal (Uttarakhand).

The outcome of the assembly polls is eagerly awaited by all political parties, preparing themselves for the electoral battle in Uttar Pradesh in April-May.

In Punjab, the election will decide the fate of 1043 assembly candidates, 50 of them women.

The main tussle for power is between Chief Minister Amarinder Singh of the Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) supremo Parkash Singh Badal. The ruling party and the SAD in alliance with the BJP contested all the 116 assembly seats.

The Punjab Cabinet yesterday recommended the dissolution of the 12th state assembly to pave the way for the constitution of the 13th state assembly.

The result for the Beas asembly constituency will come later as the polling was postponed there for March 11 due to violence in which an Akali activists was killed during the canvassing.

Counting of votes for Uttarakhand's second Assembly elections and the Tehri-Garhwal parliamentary constituency bypoll started at 0800 hrs.

The counting of votes, for the election held on February 21, started in the capital city of Dehradun and various district headquarters in the presence of senior officials and observers, the state Election Commission said.

Tight security arrangements are in place in all the polling centres with a three-tier security cordon and additional security personnel close at hand.

Out of a total of 806 candidates for the assembly election, 785 were left in the fray for 69 seats of the 70-member Assembly after Bajpur Assembly election was deferred due to the death of the Congress candidate.

Counting of votes for 60 assembly seats in Manipur, which went to the polls in three phases on February 8, 14 and 23, began this morning.

The counting was taken up at 12 counting centres and 18 counting halls at the district headquarters and sub-divisional headquarters.

UNI