Congress on Friday appointed three observers, including former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel for Maharashtra, and senior party leader Tariq Anwar and two others for Jharkhand to oversee the post-election scenario in both the states.
According to a communiqué issued by the Congress general secretary in-charge of Organisation, KC Venugopal, the party president Mallikarjun Kharge has appointed senior party leader Gehlot, Baghel and G Parameshwara as observers for Maharashtra, while Anwar, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Krishna Allavuru for Jharkhand with immediate effect.
The appointment of the observers to the two states comes a day prior to the counting of votes of Assembly elections in both the states.Counting of votes for the Maharashtra and Jharkhand Assembly elections will begin on Saturday early morning, amid tight security. The counting across all the centres in Maharashtra and Jharkhand will begin at 8 am. The postal ballot counting will start first.
Elections to the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, which witnessed direct contest between the BJP-Shiv Sena-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Mahayuti alliance and the Congress, Shiv Sena- Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) and NCP-Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP-SCP) Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, was held in a single phase on 20th November. The state recorded a voter turnout of 65.02 per cent.
Jharkhand however saw a direct contest between the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-Congress alliance and the BJP-led NDA. The first phase voting in 43 Assembly seats was held on 13th November and second phase in 38 seats on 20th November. The first phase recorded 66.65 per cent turnout and second phase 68.45 per cent.