Counting for the assembly elections in five states started at 8am on Tuesday. The elections in the states of Telangana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Chhattisgarh have been widely perceived to be a precursor to the Lok Sabha elections, due by May next year.
Chhattisgarh has 90 seats, Rajasthan 200 seats, Madhya Pradesh 230 seats, Telangana 119 seats and Mizoram 40 seats. While the Congress is a major player in all five states, it is the ruling party in Mizoram only.
The BJP is the ruling party in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh; in the last two states, it has been in power for the past 15 years. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti is striving to come back to power in Telangana, where it formed the first government after the state's bifurcation from Andhra Pradesh.
The Congress had raised allegations of irregularities in Madhya Pradesh with respect to the safety of electronic voting machines, while in Telangana, the party alleged the 22 lakh names had been deleted from the voters' rolls in the past year.
THE WEEK will be conducting live coverage of the results on its website and social media channels with inputs from its correspondents and photographers in the states where counting is being held.
