The counting of votes for the Darbhanga Graduates’ constituency in the Bihar Legislative Council elections stretched to 57 hours, with the Election Commission of India (ECI) clearing the result at around 9pm on Thursday, officials said.
The district administration arrested five people on Wednesday following the disturbance. The delay caused impatience and triggered protests by counting agents of political parties on the counting campus. A victorious Jha, however, gave the district officials a clean chit. There was nothing unusual about it. “I didn’t sleep for the last three days.
It hurts when people run you down on social platforms, attributing motive and casting aspersions on your integrity due to the delay in counting and announcement of the result, without actually knowing the facts,” Kumar said. “In this case, 37 of the 40 candidates were eliminated, and yet none achieved the winning quota, finally leaving BJP’s Sarvesh Kumar, RJD’s Anil Jha and Mohammad Imteyaz of the Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) in the fray by the process of elimination. At this stage, Kumar led by 1,004 votes until the third-placed Imteyaz’s second-preference votes were transferred to Kumar and Jha, the remaining two leading candidates. The transfer of Imteyaz’s preference votes gave Jha a lead of 533 votes over Kumar to secure a victory,” Kumar said. Handling ballot papers bearing the names of 40 candidates was a major logistical challenge. Officials had to mix the ballots to ensure booth-wise identification was not possible, arrange them in bundles – 25 ballot papers in a lot of 20 bundles for each of the 14 counting tables – and keep them in separate, secure containers, officials familiar with the matter said. The constituency had 138 polling booths and 14 counting tables. The first nine hours after counting began at 8am on October 27 were spent arranging the ballot papers, an official familiar with the process said. Each of the 10 counting rounds took an average of three hours, accounting for another 30 hours to clear valid votes and count them, before the elimination process began, the official added. “Counting (of votes for MLC polls) is process-driven, which usually takes an average 36-40 hours.
“They were later released on personal bonds the same evening,” district magistrate Kumar said. Officials of the district administration cooperated and conducted it smoothly in a well coordinated manner,” Jha said. The district magistrate said the process had taken a personal toll.
