Counting begins for Pune division graduates and teachers seats of Legislative Council at Balewadi

Counting of votes for the graduates and teachers constituencies of the Maharashtra Legislative Council from Pune division began on Tuesday. The counting is under way at the Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi. Political circles are keenly watching the outcome of these closely fought elections.

The counting is being held in the badminton hall of the sports complex. A hundred tables have been set up for the graduates seat and 42 for the teachers seat. The graduates seat is being counted in five rooms, each with two rows of 10 tables. For the teachers seat there are three rooms, each with two rows of seven tables.

Returning officer and Divisional Commissioner Sheetal Teli-Ugale asked officials and staff to work together in coordination so that the entire process is conducted accurately, transparently and peacefully. She also stressed that mistakes must be avoided in every round of counting.

On the graduates seat, the main contest is between Dr Smita Yogesh Jadhav of the BJP-led Mahayuti and Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar). Sunil Modi of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) is also among the 47 candidates in the fray.

There are 30 candidates for the teachers seat. The main contest here is seen to be among the BJP's Kaustubh Gawade, the Congress's Jayant Asgaonkar, independent candidate Dattatraya Sawant and Sachin Sanap, who is backed by the Shiv Sena.

Before counting began, officials and staff were trained in the whole process. This covered opening ballot boxes, making bundles of 50 ballot papers each, separating valid and invalid ballots, filling in the prescribed forms and submitting the result sheet after every round.

The teams handling the teachers seat count were trained by Additional Collector and Maharashtra Energy Development Agency Additional Director General Arun Anandkar. The teams handling the graduates seat were trained by Joint Commissioner Sanjay Palande.

All eyes are now on the results of each round. Counting on both seats will continue in this manner until all rounds are completed.