Votes are being counted for the 48 local bodies in Jharkhand for which the voting was held on February 23, with over 63% turnout. All results are expected latest by Saturday.

As of now, results declared for wards in Ranchi were as follows.

Ward No. 1 – Savita Kachhap
Ward No. 2 – Nakul Tirkey
Ward No. 19 – Geeta Kumari
Ward No. 25 – Sushma Raj
Ward No. 26 – Pradeep Kumar
Ward No. 48 – Pradeep Minz
Ward No. 37 – Parmeshwar Singh
Ward No. 38 – Awadhesh Thakur
Ward No. 49 – Jamila Khatoon
Ward No. 31 – Neeraj Kumar

As far as the counting of votes for the post of Mayor in Ranchi is concerned, in the first round of counting, BJP-backed candidate Roshni Khalkho is leading the race by more than 12,000 votes, while Congress-supported Rama Khalkho is trailing behind, as per the latest trends.

In the previous local body elections held in Jharkhand in 2018, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Asha Lakra won the mayor's post, defeating Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate Varsha Gaadi. Similarly, BJP leader Sanjiv Vijaywargiya had won the deputy mayor's post after defeating Congress candidate Rajesh Kumar Gupta.

Counting of ballots began around 8 am on Friday. Since ballot papers were used, the counting is taking time.

“Ballot papers are being segregated in the initial stage of the counting. The results, starting from ward councillors, are likely to come in a few hours," State Election Commission Secretary Radhe Shyam Prasad said.

Records show that polling was conducted using two colours of ballot papers -- white and pink -- for the election of councillors and mayors or chairpersons, respectively.

Elections were held for the posts of mayor and chairperson in 48 urban local bodies, and councillors in 1,042 wards across nine municipal corporations, 20 nagar parishads and 19 nagar panchayats.

For the post of mayor and chairperson, 562 candidates, including 235 women, are in the fray, while 5,562 aspirants, including 2,727 women, contested the posts of ward councillors.