Counting of votes for 243 Bihar Assembly seats and Banka Parliamentary by-poll began at 8 this morning amid tight security arrangements. 42 counting centres have been set up through out the state. AIR Patna correspondent reports that the entire counting process is being videographed. The State Chief Electoral Officer Sudhir Kumar Rakesh told AIR that the Commission has deputed two special observers to oversee the counting process. One Micro Observer has also been deputed on every counting table. The round wise results are expected to be faster this time as compared to 2009 Lok Sabha election counting. The polling percentage was higher this time 52.43 percent as compared to 45.85 percent in the last Assembly elections in 2005. Political fortune of 3523 candidates including 308 women will be decided in today's counting. There are 1342 independent candidates. The Congress is the only party which has contested all the 243 constituencies followed by BSP 239. The NDA constituents-BJP contested 102 seats while Janata Dal (United) 141. The RJD and its ally LJP contested 168 and 75 seats respectively . CPI contested 56 seats and CPM 30. The Chief Minister Mr. Nitish Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, State BJP President Dr. C.P.Thakur and RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav are not contesting the Assembly elections.Former Chief Minister Rabri Devi of the RJD is contesting from two seats of Sonepur and Raghopur. The JD(U)-BJP combine has 143 seats, RJD-LJP 64, Congress 9 and others 27 in the outgoing Assembly.