Uttarakhand Election Results 2017: There are a total of 70 assembly seats in the state.
With results of
Uttarakhand assembly election all set to be declared tomorrow, March 11, both the leading political parties are keeping their fingers crossed. While most exit polls on Thursday gave the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a clean sweep, leaders in the outgoing Congress government are confident of a win.
On Saturday, votes will be counted on 864 tables, at 15 counting centres, which will be manned by over 11,000 personnel. Heavy security arrangements have been made to ensure that after the tally is announced, there is no untoward incident between rival political parties and their supporters, an official said.
Chief Minister Harish Rawat, who faced an all-round attack from the BJP and his old associates, who switched to BJP ahead of the polls in February, was confident of winning the Uttarakhand assembly elections again. "Based on the work done by the Congress government, we are going to form the government again," Mr Rawat said.
Mr Rawat predicted a "minimum of 45 seats" for the Congress in the 70-member house. He also slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "degrading the office of the PM" by his language during his poll campaigns.
"We have the blessings of the people and we are going to romp home to power again," he said confidently. The opposition BJP, which got 31 seats against 32 for Congress in the 2012 elections, is enthusiastic about its performance. We will get more than 50 seats and the Congress will be routed as people are not only angry at the present Rawat government but are also looking with great hope towards the BJP for development of the state," said BJP's Ajay Bhatt.
By-polls for 69 seats was held in Uttarakhand on February 15. Voting in the state's Udham Singhnagar constituency was held on March 9, after the death of a candidate.
Over 65 per cent of the 75.92 lakh voted in
the assembly elections. The ballot took place in 10,854 polling stations. Both the Congress and the BJP contested for all the 70 assembly seats, while the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) fielded 69 candidates, Samajwadi Party 25 candidates and regional outfit Uttarakhand Kranti Dal fielded candidates for 55 seats. For a simple majority in the house, 36 seats are needed.
During the campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the hill state to punish the Congress, which he said, had brought disrepute to the '
devbhoomi'. The Congress, on the other hand, targeted the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a host of other issues, including demonetisation. At stake is the fate of 637 candidates, of whom 62 are women and two from the third gender.
(With inputs from IANS)