GUWAHATI, May 18 - Elaborate security arrangements have been made for the counting of votes tomorrow. Meanwhile, both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress have expressed confidence on formation of the next Government.
Highly placed police sources told The Assam Tribune that a three-tier security ring is in place in all the counting centres, involving Central forces and Assam Police personnel. The authorities have also regulated victory processions and adequate arrangements have been made to prevent clashes between supporters of rival parties.
Sources revealed that 75 companies of Central forces were withdrawn from the State after the days of polling and 25 of those companies have returned to ensure security for the counting process and to prevent possible violence after the counting.
The Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD) area is considered vulnerable to group clashes between supporters of rival parties and additional forces have been sent to the vulnerable areas.
Meanwhile, hours before the counting, both the BJP and Congress expressed hopes of forming the next Government in the State.
State BJP president Sarbananda Sonowal told The Assam Tribune that they were very much confident that the BJP-led alliance would be able to form the next Government in the State. He said that the people of the State were very kind to the BJP in the last Lok Sabha elections and �we are confident that the people were kind to us in the Assembly polls, too�. He said that the people desperately wanted a change of Government for good governance and assured that the BJP-led alliance would be able to deliver the same.
BJP State unit spokesman Bijon Mahajan said that the party workers are euphoric and the election results would go in favour of the BJP.
On the other hand, Congress spokesman Apurba Bhattacharjee said that the party is confident of retaining power and the micro-booth level management committees formed by the party played a major role in establishing contact between the people and the party. He said that the exit polls, most of which indicated overwhelming majority for the BJP-led alliance, were biased and many times in the past such exit polls were proved to be incorrect.
