The counting of votes for the Manipur lone Rajya Sabha seat, which election took placed on Friday, has been delayed as the approval from the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the counting of votes is being awaited.
The counting of votes was supposed to start at around 5 pm, but has been delayed following intervention from the ECI, sources said.
Officials are awaiting approval from the ECI to start the counting process. However, the reason behind the ECI's intervention remains unclear.
A total of 52 votes were cast for the lone Rajya Sabha seat which voting began at 9 am and ended at 4 pm after intense political drama over the alleged irregularities by the ruling party.
In an interesting turn of events, three of the seven turncoats of the Congress party, who are facing disqualification under the anti-defection law, were allowed to vote.
Earlier, they were barred from entering the assembly by an order of the Manipur High Court.
In a bizarre twist, the lone AITC MLA who withdrew his support to the BJP-led coalition government headed by Chief Minister N Biren Singh and joined the Congress was disqualified. As such, he was barred from voting.
This is a developing news and more details are awaited. Watch this space for more updates.