HYDERABAD: The political fate of 58 candidates and the prestige of three major parties now rest in the EVMs stored at Yousufguda’s Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy Indoor Stadium, where counting for the high-stakes Jubilee Hills byelection will begin at 8 am on Friday. Results are expected between 12 noon and 1 pm.
The byelection, necessitated by the death of BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath, has turned into a tense triangular contest between his wife and BRS candidate Maganti Sunitha, Congress nominee Naveen Yadav and BJP’s Lankala Deepak Reddy.
Hyderabad DEO RV Karnan and Joint Commissioner of Police Tafseer Iqbal said only contesting candidates and authorised election agents will be allowed inside the counting hall. Postal ballots will be counted first, followed by EVMs in 10 rounds across 42 tables cleared by the Election Commission of India. Large screens will display the round-wise results.
A total of 186 counting personnel have been deployed. Hyderabad police will station 250 personnel and 15 platoons. Prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, will be in force around the venue. Officials warned of strict action for any violation of the prohibitory orders or the MCC.
Voter turnout stood at 48.49%, with 1,94,631 votes polled: 99,771 men, 94,855 women and five others. There are 101 postal ballots. The constituency has 4,01,365 voters.
Counting procedure
The strongroom will be opened in the presence of candidates and election agents. Only officials authorised by the ECI may enter the hall. Postal ballots will be counted first. One randomly selected VVPAT will then be counted and tallied. EVM counting will follow, with seals shown to agents before results are read aloud. After every round, vote totals will be recorded, signed by counting agents and forwarded to the Returning Officer. Once counting concludes, the RO will seek ECI approval and then issue the certificate to the winning candidate.