Decision day for ‘mini secretariat’ administrators

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

Counting of votes polled on February 7 for the Zilla Parishad (mini secretariat) and Panchayat Samiti elections will begin at 10 am on Monday. Polling was held from 7.30 am to 5.30 pm at 2,282 centres across 63 Zilla Parishad groups and 126 Panchayat Samiti constituencies.

The district recorded an average turnout of 72.69%, nearly 21% higher than in 2017, making it a potential game changer. The mandate in favour of the Mahayuti, Maha Vikas Aghadi and AIMIM will start emerging from 10 am at counting centres in nine tehsils, with the overall picture expected to be clear by 4 pm.

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5.12 lakh voters abstained

Out of 18,75,028 registered voters, 13,62,866 cast their votes 7,23,360 men, 6,39,499 women and seven transgender voters while 5,12,162 voters abstained. Around 200 staff, with 200 additional personnel, will be deployed at each centre, taking the total to about 2,000 staff across nine counting centres, along with adequate police security. Counting will be conducted at 126 tables constituency-wise in multiple booth-wise rounds, with a separate team for postal ballots, said tahsildar Dinesh Zhample.

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Counting centres: Government Polytechnic College (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar), new tehsil building (Soygaon), ITI (Sillod), Chhatrapati Shivaji College (Kannad), tehsil central administrative building (Phulambri), ITI (Khultabad), Vinayakrao Patil College (Vaijapur), indoor stadium, Muktanand College (Gangapur), and Santpeeth administrative building (Paithan).

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Voter turnout by tehsil (in %):

• Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: 70.75

• Soygaon: 68.47

• Sillod: 80.56

• Phulambri: 76.80

• Khultabad: 77.81

• Gangapur: 67.81

• Vaijapur: 71.80

Overall turnout: 72.69%