Deputy Election Commissioner Chandra Bhushan Kumar said, "We have 17 ACs where 66 rounds have to be completed. We are hopeful that these things will come to an end very soon."

 

Kumar added since the beginning of the counting the poll body has been sharing time-to-time updates on the ballot counting, and also provided the context under which these counting processes have been undertaken. "Hope our teams are able to finish the remaining task on the ground, as soon as possible. The efforts put in by our functionaries on the ground are very laudable. In fact, all political parties and candidates have given support and assistance in the whole exercise," said Kumar.

 

He added, "Hopefully we will have the final tally in one hour or so, which will be visible to everybody on our website and also at respective counting locations where our returning officers in the presence of our counting observers are going through this last leg of this counting process."

 

In an earlier press conference at 10 p.m., the Election Commission had said it has never worked under anybody's pressure and refuted the RJD's allegations about not giving winning certificates to candidates of the Grand Alliance.

 

The RJD in a tweet had put out a list of 119 seats where the Grand Alliance candidates had won after completion of counting, and returning officers had allegedly congratulated them for the victory, but they were not given certificates.

 

Bhushan said the poll body has learnt about this tweet and cited the results and trends are available on the Election Commission website constituency wise. "At 10 p.m., we are here. The results of 146 seats have been declared. In 97 cases trends are available. So this is the factual situation available in the public domain for everybody to see," he said.

 

The poll body said the last few phases of counting are remaining in Bihar polls, and it may hold another press conference at midnight, if required, with the final update on the polls.

 

However, when asked about the list of 119 candidates put out by the RJD, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner, Umesh Sinha, clarified that whatever information is it with the Election Commission is authentic information, as it reaches the poll body after data is authenticated.

 

"The returning officers complete the task assigned and the observers supervise the process. They follow the due procedure and then that information is submitted. There can be some gaps in the information: the information with them and the official information", he added.