Meet the counting staff who dispatched poll results at breakneck speed

While all eyes were glued to television sets in the Capital for the Municipal Corporation election results, some well-trained men and women were working hard since morning to bring us first hand information.

These dedicated officials are the counting supervisors and assistants at the counting centres, who sat behind an iron mesh and sent all the updated MCD results to the elections officers, representatives of candidates and media persons.

During any election, a select few government servants are assigned by the Election Commission to work for it so as to ensure that the elections are conducted smoothly.

Among the responsibilities assigned to government officials by the Commission are polling officer, presiding officer, sector officer, counting supervisors and counting assistants.

As the supervisors stood with the electronic voting machines (EVMs) in their hands, people were seen listening attentively to them as they narrated the round-wise result.

Sudesh Yadav woke up at three in the morning and within half-an-hour she was on her way to Meera Bai Polytechnic in Maharani Bagh. Yadav was the counting assistant and was handling the responsibility for the first time. As she sat behind the mesh with the briefcase of EVMs, she felt elated with the task assigned to her.

"I was a bit nervous as I was handling this for the first time, but it was a pleasant experience. The crowd was decent and as we kept announcing the results, while they kept noting it. It gave us a feeling of importance," said Yadav with a grin.

However, Yadav felt that the distance of a counting official's home from the counting centre should have been kept in mind before assigning duties.

She said she had to travel from Najafgarh to Maharani Bagh in the wee hours on Wednesday all alone.

Devender, another counting supervisor – who has worked in five elections till date – was seen helping his colleagues whenever they had any issues with the procedure.

"It was not really hectic. It's more systematic these days and I just helped some of my colleagues who were new to the task. This is the only time people listen to you so attentively," Devender said.

Election Commission officials trained the staff a day before in handling the EVMs to wipe out any last moment hiccups and confusion.

"This was my first time too, but we were trained efficiently and did not face any default on counting day," said Kapil Kaushish, who was more relaxed after the counting concluded.