Counting of votes for 25 Lok Sabha, 175 assembly seats begins in Andhra Pradesh

AMARAVATI: Counting of votes for 25 Lok Sabha and 175 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh began at 8 am on Tuesday.

According to the Election Commission, the counting will take place at 33 locations across the state in 401 halls, which will have 2,443 EVM tables for Parliamentary constituencies and 2,446 for Assembly constituencies.

Similarly, 443 tables have also been arranged for counting postal ballot votes for Parliamentary constituencies and 557 for Assembly seats.

As many as 454 candidates contested in the Lok Sabha and 2,387 for the Legislative Assembly elections in the southern state.

The EC has deployed 119 observers to supervise the counting process across the state, along with a micro-observer for each counting table.

In total, 25,209 staff have been deployed for the counting procedure.

The NDA alliance of TDP, BJP and Janasena, and YSRCP are the major contenders while INDI alliance consisting of Congress, CPI and CPI (M) have also marked their presence in the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls on May 13.

The fate of TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu, who contested from Kuppam assembly constituency, YSRCP chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy (Pulivendula) and Janasena chief Pawan Kalyan (Pithapuram) is sealed in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

The electoral fortunes of Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Y S Sharmila, Andhra Pradesh BJP chief D Purandeswari and TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh will also be determined on Tuesday.

Sharmila contested from the Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency, Purandeswari (Rajamahendravaram Lok Sabha) while Lokesh fought from the Mangalagiri Assembly segment.

Tight security arrangements have been put in place for an incident-free election results day in the southern state.