Two cobras were found on Jamshedpur Co-operative College premises on Thursday. The college is serving as a strongroom, where counting will take place on Saturday. Snake catcher N.K. Singh was called to take the reptiles away. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Ranchi, May 14: Counting of votes for the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state and the Jamtara Assembly seat will begin at 8am on Saturday with the first results expected between 1pm and 1.30pm .

The first result is expected from the Singhbhum constituency which has the least number of counting rounds at 14. The counting will be held at Mahila College, Chaibasa. Trends and leads would be available online. The Khunti Lok Sabha constituency will have the 18 rounds of counting. Godda will have the maximum number of rounds with 30, to be held at Godda College.

The state’s joint chief electoral officer, A.K. Sinha, said over 5,000 poll personnel had been deputed for counting and their deployment had been made at random in the presence of the central observer. A video recording of the process had also been done.

“As per the Election Commission’s directives, counting of votes ought to be done according to Assembly segments,” Sinha said. There will be separate counting halls for each Assembly segment. And at every counting table, one counting observer, one assistant observer and one micro observer had been deputed.

For 12 of the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies, counting would be done at a venue in the district headquarters. But, for the Dhanbad seat, counting will be done at the Government Mining Institute and the Government Polytechnic in Dhanbad. Counting for the Giridih Lok Sabha constituency will be conducted at six locations spread over various sectors of Bokaro Steel City.

“Six school buildings have been identified in Bokaro. Both central paramilitary forces and state armed police would be deployed at the centres and prohibitory orders have been clamped in particular areas,” Sinha added.

Observer shifted

Controversial poll observer of Jamshedpur parliamentary constituency O.Y. Toppo has been shifted to Godda. Godda observer S. Sitaram has been transferred to Jamshedpur for the counting on May 16. Senior BJP leaders had requested Toppo’s removal because of his “partisan attitude”.