Counting of votes polled in Bihar Assembly elections to continue till late evening: Bihar’s Chief Electoral Officer

Patna (Bihar): The counting of votes polled in Bihar Assembly elections will continue till late evening on Tuesday, said Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar, HR Srinivasa.

“Around 4.10 crores votes were cast, 92 lakhs votes counted so far. Earlier there used to 25-26 rounds of counting, this time it went up to around 35 rounds. So the counting will continue till late evening,” said Srinivasa.

“In some Assembly Constituencies (ACs) there are fewer polling stations, counting will conclude in 24-25 rounds. But we also have some ACs, where there will be 50-51 rounds. On average, we will have 30-35 rounds of counting per AC,” he added.

Press Briefing of Election Commission of India. #BiharAssemblyElection2020. https://t.co/h0cUeIEC19

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Counting of votes is underway for the three-phase Bihar Assembly elections, but the result declaration this time will be different due to the coronavirus pandemic, which is likely to cause some delay in the release of the final result.

According to reports, results might be delayed a bit this time as the number of polling stations were raised from 72,723 earlier to 1,06,515, an increase of 46.5 per cent, to ensure adherence to social distancing measures in view of the pandemic.

As of 11:30 am, BJP is leading in 70 seats, while the RJD is leading in 62 seats, the JD(U) in 48 seats and the Congress in 20 seats.

The fate of 3,755 candidates across 243 seats will be decided with the Election Commission setting up a total of 55 counting centres, housing 414 halls, spread across all the 38 districts of the state that voted in three phases on October 28, November 3 and November 7.