Counting of votes for the Umreth Assembly bypoll in Gujarat began on Monday under tight security arrangements.
The April 23 by-election was necessitated by the death of sitting BJP MLA Govind Parmar.
The byelection recorded 59.04 per cent voting at 306 polling stations of the assembly seat, with six candidates in the fray.
The counting began at 8 am on Monday with the opening of postal ballots at the BJVM College campus at Vallabh Vidyanagar in Anand district.
A total of 206 postal ballots and 35 service voters were being counted in the initial phase.
After that, the counting of votes cast in EVMs will be done, and the entire exercise will be completed at the end of 22 rounds.
Later, the slips of the voters of five polling stations will be counted randomly, District Election Officer Praveen Chaudhary said.
Nearly 700 officials and employees, including 14 counting supervisors, 14 assistants and 14 micro supervisors, have been appointed for the counting of votes, he said.
A three-tier cordoning system has been put in place to prevent the entry of unauthorised persons inside the counting premises.
Vehicles are not allowed to be brought within a 100-metre radius around the counting premises.
Mobile phones are also not allowed to be brought to the counting centre.
The six candidates in fray include those from the ruling BJP and Opposition Congress, three independents and one from a lesser-known party.
The bypoll witnessed a direct contest between BJP candidate Harshad Govindbhai Parmar and Congress nominee Bhrugurajsinh Chauhan.
Harshad Parmar is the son of four-term MLA Govind Parmar, who died on March 6 at the age of 72 after a brief illness.
It is the first major election for Harshad Parmar.
Congress nominee Bhrugurajsinh Chauhan, a 62-year-old seasoned local leader, also contested his first assembly election.
Chauhan served as the president of the Umreth taluka panchayat for three consecutive terms between 2000 and 2015.
He is currently the party's coordinator for the central zone in the state.
In the 2022 assembly elections, Govind Parmar had retained the Umreth seat for the BJP.
(With inputs from PTI)
