Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa confirmed on Monday that vote counting for the biennial Legislative Council elections kicks off at 8:00 am Tuesday. The process covers five graduates’ and six teachers’ constituencies, spread across seven major cities including Lucknow, Varanasi, and Gorakhpur.
This isn’t a simple tally. The elections use the single transferable vote (STV) system, which means the count will be a marathon of ranking and re-ranking preferences. Rinwa instructed returning officers to keep trained reserves on standby, acknowledging the technical complexity and time the counting will consume. Security personnel are deployed at all centres, with 24-hour power supply and CCTV surveillance mandated to ensure transparency.
Venues have been specifically designated for each city’s segment. In Lucknow, counting happens at Ramabai Rally Ground; in Varanasi, at the State Warehouse Corporation. Other centres include the Naveen Krishi Utpadan Mandi in Agra and the Gandhi Hall Building in Meerut. Rinwa emphasized that all arrangements are in place to ensure a peaceful and transparent process, with officials assigned duties well in advance.
The outcome will reshape the upper house dynamics in the state. As the count drags on, political parties will be watching every transferred vote, knowing that the STV method can flip results in close races. The final results are expected to emerge only after all preferences are exhausted across the 11 constituencies.