Counting to be done at 81 centres in 75 districts across UP: State Chief Electoral Officer

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], June 2 (ANI): After the final phase of the Lok Sabha elections concluded on Saturday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said that counting for the Lok Sabha election will begin at 8 AM at 81 counting centres in 75 districts across the state on Tuesday.
"On 4 June, Lok Sabha election counting will take place and it will begin from 8 am. In the state of Uttar Pradesh, in 75 districts, there are 81 counting centres where the counting of votes will take place... Out of 80 Lok Sabha seats, the counting of votes for 35 seats will take place in one counting centre, the counting of votes for 37 seats will take place in 2 counting centres each, and the counting of seats of 8 Lok Sabha seats will be done in 3 centres each. Postal ballots will be counted at the headquarters of the returning officer of the parliamentary constituency," Rinwa said.
Further talking about the arrangement being made to have a free and fair election Rinwa said, "To keep a vigilant eye on the counting of an election, the election commission has also appointed additional observers and a total of 179 observers has been appointed and 15 of the observers has been allocated with 1 assembly constituency while 104 observers allocated 2 assembly constituency and 60 were giver three constituencies.
On the other hand, Congress leader Ajay Maken flagged the new rule that candidates' counting agents are not allowed at the Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) tables during the vote-counting process. Calling it an issue "bigger than the alleged EVM rigging, the Congress leader urged the Election Commission of India to address it.
"Candidate's Counting Agents' at the ARO table are NOT being allowed for the first time!!! I have contested 9 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections in the past- And this is happening for the first time. If true, this is bigger than the alleged EVM rigging! I am flagging this issue for all candidates! I hope @ECISVEEP rectifies it soon," Maken posted on X.
However, the Chief Election Officer of Delhi clarified that the counting agents of candidates are allowed at the tables of RO and AROs. "It is clarified that Counting Agents of Candidates are allowed at the tables of RO/AROs," the Chief Election Officer, Delhi Office posted on X. The voting for the marathon seven-phase polling process for the Lok Sabha elections, which began on April 19, came to an end on Saturday (June 1). (ANI)