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Amethi results on October 7

With polling over in the Amethi parliamentary constituency, one of the two seats from where Congress president Sonia Gandhi contested, the ballot boxes have been kept under tight security at the Mandi Parishad on the outskirts of district headquarters Sultanpur.

Counting of ballots from the three segments of the constituency -- Amethi, Jagdishpur and Gauriganj -- will be taken up in Amethi, while that of the remaining two segments, Salon and Tilol, falling under Rae Bareli district, will be held there.

Sultanpur District Magistrate Anurag Srivastava, who is the returning officer for both Amethi and Sultanpur constituencies, said: ''All arrangements have been completed and we expect the result to be announced on October 7.''

Repolling is likely to be held in a few booths from where reports of irregularities came in. ''We will despatch personnel to these booths today as the schedule for repoll falls tomorrow,'' he said.

Ballot boxes from remote areas kept on arriving till early Monday morning.

Deputy Electoral Officer Ram Raj Singh Yadav said closed circuit television sets would be used to monitor the counting process. ''There will be 14 counting tables and one for the assistant returning officer,'' he said. ''Each counting table will have one supervisor, two senior staff and two counting assistants besides representatives from the political parties,'' he added.

The counting will begin at 0800 hours on October 6. ''The first few hours will be spent on initial counting which will include mixing of ballot papers. The detailed counting is expected to start around 1400 hours,'' Yadav informed. ''We will also be in live contact with the counting centre at Rae Bareli.''

The sleepy town had come alive in the last few weeks with a high-voltage campaign by the celebrated nominees from the two main parties, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. While Sonia Gandhi's campaign was primarily managed by her daughter Priyanka Vadra, the local ''royals''-- Dr Sanjay Singh and his wife Ameeta Singh -- left no stone unturned to garner support for the BJP. Senior BJP including Sushma Swaraj and Pramod Mahajan had also come down to campaign.

UNI

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