Supporters at Mankapur stadium
Inside the counting halls, 84 tables remained at the centre of activity as hundreds of election personnel scrutinised over 1.65 lakh ballots, recorded preferences and redistributed votes following successive eliminations.
This time, no candidate had secured the required winning quota even after successive rounds, requiring officials to scrutinise ballots, eliminate candidates and redistribute votes according to subsequent preferences. Unlike EVM-based elections, where results are generally declared on the same day, the manual counting process and the close contest between frontrunners BJP ’s Sudhakar Kohale and Congress ’s Abhijit Wanjarri prolonged the wait. Counting stretched well beyond the time taken in the previous graduates’ constituency election, when the process began at 8am and the result was declared around 5am the following day.
Heavy police deployment maintained security outside the stadium. Tension flared outside the counting centre as BJP and Congress workers clashed briefly before police intervention.