Historic day

New Delhi: The Election Commission is all set to count some 550 million votes cast in the Lok Sabha polls that are widely expected to return the BJP to power. The counting would start at 8 am at 989 counting centres across the country. While the trend would be known by mid-day, the final result would be available by 5 pm.

"We are fully prepared and geared up for the counting day tomorrow... There is absolutely no problem," Election Commissioner H S Brahma told IANS. He said all data accruing from the nationwide counting process would be updated on the poll panel's web site after every five minutes.

Around 66 per cent of the 814 million electorate voted between April 7 and May 12 across the country to pick a new 543-member Lok Sabha. Exit polls at the end of the staggered election have predicted a win for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). A total of 8,251 candidates, including 668 women and five transgenders, contested the Lok Sabha battle. The contestants included 3,234 independents. Friday's results will determine the political fortunes of India's virtual who is who, including BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi (Vadodara, Varanasi), Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli), Rahul Gandhi (Amethi), SP leader Mulayam Singh (Mainpuri, Azamgarh), JD-U leader Sharad Yadav (Madhepura), BJP leaders Arun Jaitley (Amritsar), Rajnath Singh (Lucknow), and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal (Varanasi).