CHANDIGARH: The stage is set for counting of votes tomorrow for 117 assembly seats in Punjab which could see the exit of ruling SAD-BJP alliance and a neck-and-neck fight between the debutant AAP and the Congress.
Counting of votes will commence at 8 AM at 54 centers in 27 locations, an election office spokesman said here.
More than 14,000 officials have been deployed at the counting centers, where tight security arrangements have been made to ensure that the exercise is completed peacefully.
Unauthorised persons would not be allowed to enter the counting centers. Nobody, barring the election observers, would be allowed to carry mobile phones there, the spokesman said.
Live results will be shown on TV screens at district election offices, prominent public places and malls.
Poll results will also be updated at regular intervals on the Election Commission's website.
Despite the exit polls predicting a total rout for the ruling SAD-BJP alliance, which is targeting a third term in the state, 89-year-old Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal
claimed the combine will win 72 seats.
State Congress chief Amarinder Singh claimed his party would emerge victorious on 65 seats, while the AAP was confident of bagging close to 100 seats.
The state went to polls in single phase on February 4 and recorded 78.60 per cent polling as against 78.57 per cent voter turnout in 2012.
As many as 1,145 candidates are in the fray, 81 of whom are female and one transgender.
The SAD contested 94 seats and its ally BJP 23. The Congress contested all the seats. The AAP and its ally Lok Insaf Party, led by the Bains brothers of Ludhiana, are
fighting on 112 and 5 seats respectively.