Bengaluru: Counting of votes for the Karnataka Assembly election will be taken up at 38 centres spread across 33 electoral districts in the state on Monday.

As many as 3.64 crore voters exercised their franchise deciding the fate of 2,654 candidates on Saturday.

According to election officials, the counting process will start at 8 am and the initial trends will be available by 10 am. The first results are expected by noon.

As many as 100 personnel will be involved in the counting of votes per constituency. There will be 14 tables for counting. Each table will have three personnel for counting, with one micro-observer in place. The votes secured by each candidate will be announced after each round of polling.

Officials will randomly choose one polling booth per each assembly constituency where the they will count the VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) displaying slips in the box as against the votes secured by a candidate, which will be displayed on the EVM.

The 38 centres are spread across 33 electoral districts with Mysuru, Chitradurga, Dakshina Kannada having two centres each and Tumakuru three. Other districts including the four covering Bengaluru have one counting centre each.

In all, a total of 11,160 personnel will be involved in the counting process.

The state police, Central Reserve Police Force and other security personnel have turned the counting centres into fortresses. Except for candidates, counting agents who have authorised passes from respective political parties and mediapersons, others will not be allowed inside the centres.

DH News Service