Expound arrangements in MP for LS polls counting

Bhopal, May 22 Counting of votes in favor of 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh will be held at 292 centres crosswise over 51 district headquarters on Thursday and results are expected by late evening, a senior election official said.

Around 1,800 CCTV cameras have been introduced at the counting centres where internet and wi-fi services won't be accessible, state Chief Electoral Officer V L Kantha Rao told reporters here on Tuesday.

"The counting of votes for the 29 Lok Sabha seats in the state will be held from 8 am on Thursday in 292 halls across 51 district headquarters. Given the number of candidates and counting rounds, the first result may start coming in by 10 pm," he said.

After the finish of counting, five randomly selected Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips from each Assembly segment of that particular Lok Sabha seat would be matched with the electronic voting machines (EVMs), he said.

The highest 29 rounds of counting will be held in Indore and the lowest 14 in Katni, he said.

Around 9,000 personnel, including 17 companies of central forces, have been sent for the security of strong rooms in which the EVMs have been kept, Rao said.

Polling for the 29 seats in the central state was held in four stages on April 29 (six seats), May 6 (seven seats), May 12 (eight seats) and May 19 (eight seats).

In the 2014 parliamentary elections, the BJP packed away 27 of these seats while the Congress figured out how to win just two.

Afterward, the Congress increased its tally to three by winning the Ratlam seat by-election.

After wresting power from the BJP in the state after a year ago's Assembly elections, the Congress is optimistic of a good show in the Lok Sabha polls.

The Bhopal Lok Sabha seat saw one of the most keenly watched contest between Congress veteran Digvijay Singh and Hindutva activist and 2008 Malegaon blast case denounced Pragya Singh Thakur.

The Guna and Chhindwara seats, won by Congress leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kamal Nath, respectively, in 2014 were also in spotlight this time.

The Congress this time selected Nakul Nath from Chhindwara after his dad and sitting MP Kamal Nath turned into the state's chief minister.

Other prominent faces in this election were BJP state president Rakesh Singh (from Jabalpur), party pioneer Prahlad Patel (Damoh), Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar (Morena), ex-Union ministers and Congress candidates Kantilal Bhuria (Ratlam-Jhabua), Arun Yadav (Khandwa), and former leader of opposition Ajay Singh (Sidhi).