THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, Nov 16: Counting of votes will be done in the spacious and well-guarded multi-purpose exam hall of the GLA College at Bara Lota Redma in Daltonganj.
The strong room where the polled EVMs have been stored is under the three-tier security cover of the CRPF round the clock, said the District Election Officer (DEO) cum Deputy Commissioner Shashi Ranjan.
The counting hall is equally impregnable with no compromise with the security, said sources.
Counting of votes is to begin at 8 am sharp on November 23. The postal ballots would be counted first.
It’s only after the counting of the postal ballots is over the EVMs’ polled votes would start being counted.
Daltonganj assembly constituency has the highest number of rounds of counting.
Counting rounds and tables for each constituency
It’s 20 rounds of the counting of votes for the Daltonganj assembly constituency while four other constituencies Panki, Bishrampur, Chhaterpur and Hussainabad will have only 19 rounds of counting. It is because the Daltonganj assembly constituency has again the highest number of booths 426.
Panki assembly constituency has 326 booths, Bishrampur assembly constituency 367 booths, Chhaterpur assembly constituency 335 booths and Hussainabad assembly constituency 342 booths.
Again Daltonganj assembly constituency will have the largest number of counting tables with 22.
Panki assembly constituency will have 18 counting tables, Bishrampur assembly constituency 20 counting tables, Chhaterpur assembly constituency 18 counting tables and Hussainabad assembly constituency which also has 18 counting tables.
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Security measures for crowd management and vote counting
There will be elaborate security exercises for the day of counting. First will be the crowd management. As all five constituencies will be counted here there will be an array of different hues of the political tents where will be sitting the supporters of the contestants listening to the counting of votes done every round.
Second, a keen contest or a nail-biting finish or dramatic swing of counting of votes will mean extra labour and pain for the administration to maintain ecstasy or frenzy down the thumb.
Lead and trail have to be most cautiously announced as greater confusions arise where YouTubers in order to beat others or for breaking news just flash the lead or trail improperly. Let there be some late in making lead or trail public but it must not be any hyperbolic under any circumstances.
The recent example of Haryana is a lesson to maintain a high level of accuracy in announcement of votes polled. The Nation was confused for hours for biased reportage to votes polled in Haryana.
Palamu administration can’t afford any casualty of fact and accuracy. It has done a massive fair Vidhan Sabha polling at 1796 booths.
Further rooftop surveillance around the counting venue and in the vicinity has been a traditional surveillance here.
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Police vigilance and restrictions on celebratory firing
There are instances of celebratory firing in the air in the victory procession here. One such celebratory firing resorted to near the house of a defeated candidate ahead of the GLA College in the past had led to extremely fragile situation.
Palamu police are expected to ensure no celebratory firing as any laxity in enforcement of no firing in happiness in the air will boomerang too severely.
Further Palamu has instances of cheers and jeers. Cheers win no enemy, jeers buy too many. There have been instances here in this feudalistic Palamu where jeers were shown to those by the winning candidates who didn’t vote for a specific candidate but the candidate reached the top of the victory stand.
Police patrol in the town has to be without any break on the day of counting. Anti-social elements had tried to fish in the uncertainty of political waters here in the past.
