Chennai: Polling for bye-elections to two
Tamil Nadu assembly constituencies was on Saturday by and large
peaceful with heavy voting reported in both the segments.
About 82 percent polling was reported in the Vandavasi
(SC) constituency and 78 per cent in Tiruchendur, Chief
Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta told reporters here.
Polling was by and large peaceful with people turning up
in large numbers to exercise their franchise. Besides state
police, paramilitary forces had also been deployed, especially
in sensitive booths, to ensure peaceful election, Police said.
"No untoward incident was reported," they said.
The by-polls were necessitated due the death of DMK MLA S
C Jayaraman at Vandavasi and resignation of former AIADMK MLA
Anitha R Radhakrishnan at Tiruchendur.
The counting will be held on December 23.
After the Lok Sabha polls, this is the first time arch
rivals DMK and AIADMK are on the electoral battle turf as
the latter had boycotted bypolls to five assembly seats in
August. Actor-politician Vijayakant`s DMDK is also in the
fray.
The Election Commission, for the first time in the state,
has taken measures to capture on web cameras, images of all
voters at the time of polling which will be compared with
their images available in the central server’s database of
electoral photo rolls to quickly act on any possible
discrepancy. The comparison will be done at a control room at
the office of CEO.
PTI
