Madurai: Polling began on a dull note in the southern districts with incessant rains preventing the voters from coming out, officials said.
There was not much queue in most of the polling booth, officials said but expressed hope that the polling would pick up once the rains stopped.
There were reports of polling machines going out of order in Tirunelveli and Theni districts but they were replaced and the polling began.
In Madurai a voter, who was more than 100 years old voted with the help of his grand sons.
A minor skirmish was reported between the DMK and ADMK cadres in Viralimalai constituency where the AIADMK leader Vijayabaskar was pitted against Palaniappan.
The polling booths had been given three tier security with the para military forces monitoring the booths.
A report from Rameswaram said that fishermen in hamlet stood on long queue despite rains to vote.
Officials had provided pandal in most of the booths to enable the voters stand queue during the rains.
