Pune counting centre readies 100 tables for graduates' and 42 for teachers' constituency polls

The results of the Pune division graduates' and teachers' constituency elections will be known within a few hours. The election machinery is fully ready for the counting, which will be held on Tuesday (27th) in the badminton hall of the Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex at Balewadi.

For the graduates' constituency, 100 counting tables have been set up, while 42 tables have been arranged for the teachers' constituency. Returning officer and Divisional Commissioner Sheetal Teli-Ugale has directed the officers and staff appointed for the work to coordinate with one another so that the counting is accurate, transparent and peaceful.

Training was held for the appointed officers and staff before the counting. Divisional Commissioner Teli-Ugale said that care must be taken to ensure no mistake is made in any round of counting. The officers and staff appointed for the teachers' constituency were trained by Additional Collector and Mahaurja Additional Director General Arun Anandkar. Joint Commissioner Sanjay Palande guided the officers and staff of the graduates' constituency.

The training included a practical demonstration of the work. Officers were taught how to open ballot boxes, how to make bundles of 50 ballot papers, how to decide whether a ballot paper is valid or invalid, how to fill in the various forms, and how to submit the result form after each round. They were also briefed on the facilities provided for the counting and on the planning.

The counting arrangement will be as follows. The graduates' constituency has a total of 100 tables and 5 counting halls. Each hall will have two rows of 10 tables. The teachers' constituency has a total of 42 tables and 3 halls, with two rows of 7 tables in each hall.

The fate of the Pune division graduates' and teachers' constituencies will be decided today, Tuesday, and political circles are watching for the result. In the graduates' constituency, the contest between Dr Smita Yogesh Jadhav of the BJP-led Mahayuti and Harshada Deshmukh-Jadhav of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) is the most talked about. A total of 47 candidates are in the fray in this constituency, including Sunil Modi of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).

In the Pune division teachers' constituency, the main contest is among the BJP's Kaustubh Gawde, the Congress's Jayant Asgaonkar, independent Dattatray Sawant and Sachin Sanap, backed by the Shiv Sena. There are 30 candidates in all in this constituency. Their fortunes will be decided once counting begins on Tuesday.