Counting begins for 68 assembly election in Himachal

 Counting begins in 68 assembly to decided the fate of 412 candidates including Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, his cabinet member, Kaul Singh Thakur, Sukhvinder Singh Sukh and Mukesh Agnihotri in 59 locations in the state on Thursday. Chief Electoral officer Munish Garag said that 68 counting halls in 59 locations throughout the state unsealed the around one lakh postal ballets first as more than one lakh armed and paramilitary jawan or service voters, Diveyang and Senior Citizens, Absentees and election duty officers exercised their votes through postal ballot duty. He said that around around ten thousand including the security personnel were deployed for the counting of votes.  He said that depending upon the availability of the space, a maximum of 14 counting tables and a minimum of 8 counting tables would be available in the counting halls. He said that there will be a separate table for nearly 500 postal ballots. Besides, there will also be separate tables for scanning of electronically transmitted postal ballots linked to computers for counting. To avoid freezing cold weather and snowfall in high altitudes areas EVMs for the tribal Lahaul Spiti were shifted to Bhuntar in Kullu and the counting for Lahaul Spiti assembly segment will take place at Bhuntar itself. Similarly for the tribal Bharmour assembly segment, the counting will take place in Chamba and for Kinnaur assembly segment the counting will take place in Reckong-peo itself. He said that  no candidate or any other person will be allowed within a perimeter of 100 meters from the counting centers except those having a valid identity card/pass issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Congress, and BJP are fighting election in all that 68 assembly and CPI(M) 12 seats. 67 candidates of Aam Adami party are in the fray.