Complete the table series riddle by finding the number that can replace "??".

One day, all the courtiers from Akbar's court were gathered in the assembly hall when one of them told the Emperor that all his valuables had been stolen by a thief the previous night.
This shocked the Emperor to his core as the place where that courter stayed was the most secured in the kingdom. The Emperor thought that it is not at all possible for an outsider to enter into the courtier's house and steal the valuables. Only another courtier could commit this crime. He quickly called Birbal to identify the thief.
Birbal thought for a while and successfully solved the mystery by identifying the thief in just one statement.
What did Birbal say?

I have branches, but no fruit, trunk or leaves. What am I?

Can you replace the question mark with the correct number?

You have four chains. Each chain has three links in it. Although it is difficult to cut the links, you wish to make a single loop with all 12 links. What is the fewest number of cuts you must make to accomplish this task?

A new Engineering building containing 100 offices had just been completed. John was hired to paint the numbers 1 to 100 on the doors. How many times will John have to paint the number nine (9)?

In the given picture, you can find two letters missing. When two particular letters are placed in the missing spots, you get an eight-letter word while reading in the anti-clockwise direction. Can you find out the missing letters and the missing word eventually?

Which number should replace the question mark?

Can you convert the number zero(0) into a positive number using just one mathematical operator ?

At a Society election for president, precisely 963 votes were cast.
There is a total of 4 candidates that participate in the election.

The winning candidate exceeds the opponents by 53, 79 and 105 votes.

How many votes do each candidate gets?