PUNE, Oct 6: As the first reports of BJP candidate Pradeep Rawat's lead over the other two Lok Sabha candidates began trickling in, jubilant faces replaced the pensive mood that had enveloped the BJP camp. If the postal ballot figures were to be taken as strong indicators, the NCP candidate Vitthal Tupe had garnered 804 votes while the BJP had managed 793 votes. And that worried them. Although the Congress candidate Mohan Joshi had managed just 113 votes, but he put up a brave face. He expected a swing later in the day and maybe a miracle or two to turn things in his favour.The counting process began around 8.15 am at the Shivajinagar godown with the unloading of the ballot boxes. The elections were held on September 11 with 59.41 per cent of over 39.66 lakh electorate exercising their franchise.Meanwhile, State Chief Election Commissioner D K Shankaran today stated that results for the entire State would be declared by Thursday afternoon.Inspecting the process of counting at the Shivajinagar godown here, Shankaran told mediapersons that the counting process had begun smoothly and peacefully in the entire State. Polling in the State has always been peaceful, he said, explaining that no repoll has ever been reported in Maharashtra, Goa and Mizoram.In each polling centre for Pune and Baramati constituencies, 12 tables were set up for counting of the ballot papers in each of the counting halls, six tables for the Lok Sabha and six for assembly. The ballot papers were first seperated from the ballot boxes which contained both the papers - pink used for assembly and white for Lok Sabha. They were bundled seperately as Lok Sabha and assembly. Then the Lok Sabha bundles were mixed up for counting and similar procedure were followed for assembly. One thousand ballot papers were being handled on each of the tables in each round of counting. Three rounds were completed by 12.30 pm and counting began at the Pune Cantonment Lok Sabha and the Kasba Assembly constituencies. Counting for the remaining ones began after 4 pm.NCP candidate Kailash Kodre was leading in the postal ballot in the Cantonment assembly constituency. He garnered 449 votes followed by the Shiv Sena candidate Suryakant Lonkar with 295 votes while Balasaheb Shivarkar trailed with just 202 votes. Interestingly, around 227 postal ballots in the Cantonment were declared invalid by the returning officer who explained that some of them were not attested by a gazetted officer and some did not contain proper signatures. The postal ballot, however, did not reflect the true picture. BJP's Girish Bapat was leading by around 6000 votes in the second round while NCP candidate for Shivajinagar constituency Ankush Kakade garnered 99 postal votes.A 10-rupee note was found inside one of the ballot boxes and some voters managed to voice their opinions writing little notes to their candidates. "This country needs five years of dictatorship," one voter opined and another hit out at selfish candidates who met voters only during the election period. One voter took a dig at former CM Manohar Joshi regarding the Girish Vyas case.The tale the kings won't like to tell!Ajit Pawar was a nervous man. The first one of the biggies to hit the counting centres. Quietly speaking into the mobile phone, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) assembly candidate from Baramati, was not too happy with the results coming in from Mumbai. His supporters ask mediapersons in hushed tones "if the figures they have received are tallying."But the hero of the day, the almighty ballot box has had a late night and an early morning. But that didn't matter much as they were all in good shape with no anomalies being reported from any counting station.The police, out in full force, in a sea of khaki are more interested in the food than the proceedings! As were most of the counting assistants and their bosses. The coupons of food and tea being coveted.But the invalid votes that are being rejected by the returning officer at the Haveli counting station shows why Ajit is worried. Most of the votes show a twin vote. One each for the ``hand'' that rocks the ``clock.'' Confusion, one might say.And it is in Shirur that reports the end of the first count (at 4.30 pm). Popatrao Gawade of the NCP is leading with 4,699 votes followed by Baburao Pacharne of the Congress. Jayashree Palande of the Bharatiya Janata Party comes third with 2652 votes.With computers put up in each counting station for the tabulation the returning officers are breathing easy. It helps, most say and are quite happy with the facilities.But some of the voters show their ire as they put in little notes recovered from the ballot boxes. ``Return all the money wasted in the elections,'' writes a disgruntled soul while another says that the whole lot of politicians are thieves with particular references.One from an employee of TELCO accuses Pawar of betrayal and another voters says, ``Before elections we (voters) were kings, after elections you (politicians) are the kings and we will become beggars.'' Need one say more.
