Nearly 90 mn UP votes to be counted Friday

Lucknow, May 15 (IANS) Nearly 90 million votes polled for the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh will be counted Friday at 76 centres spread across the state, an official said Thursday.

The counting process, which begins at 8 a.m., will be videographed and 112 observers and 10 special observers have been deputed.

The postal ballots will be counted first after which the process to count the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) votes would begin.

Chief Electoral Officer Umesh Sinha said all numbers on the EVMs and their seals will be verified and checked by gazetted officials. The use of mobile phones inside the counting centres has been banned.

Media centres have been set up at all the counting centres.

In the high-profile Amethi seat, counting will be held at two centres - Manishi Girls degree college and Indira Gandhi PG college, officials said.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is locked in a direct contest with Bharatiya Janata Party's Smriti Irani and Aam Aadmi Party's Kumar Vishwas in Amethi.

Polling was held in six phases in the state. Among the prominent candidates are Congress president Sonia Gandhi, BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, BJP president Rajnath Singh, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal, and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.