Chennai: Tamil Nadu recorded 13.48 per cent voting till 9am Thursday in 38 Lok Sabha constituencies of the state, with Chief Minister K Palaniswami and DMK chief MK Stalin among early voters. Dayanidhi Maran also voted here along with his family members. Besides 38 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats, bypolls to 18 Assembly segments are also underway.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the state, Satyabrata Sahoo said polling was peaceful and issues like technical glitches in EVM machines in some locations were being addressed. “Polling has been very peaceful,” he told reporters here.
Palaniswami and Stalin waited in queue at Edappadi in Salem district and Chennai, respectively, and cast their votes.
After casting his vote, Stalin alleged that there has been distribution of cash and accused the Election Commission (EC) of being an ‘ally’ of Central and State governments.
Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan, DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran and Kanimozhi and Karti Chidambaram of the Congress are among key contenders.
Radhakrishnan told reporters in Kanyakumari: “This is a massive democratic festival which will decide the fate of India. I have exercised my franchise….a silent revolution is happening.”
AIADMK leader and state minister D Jayakumar said 13 per cent voting in the morning ‘is a joyous thing’. “This shows there is a wave for Amma and MGR,” he said, exuding confidence that the AIADMK-BJP combine will emerge victorious.
While senior Congress leader P Chidambaram voted at Kandanur in Sivaganga district, AMMK leader TTV Dhinakaran excised his franchise along with his family here.
The state’s electorate is 5.84 crore (after deducting the 14.26 lakh voters in Vellore) strong. Election in Vellore has been postponed.
In the run-up to the polls, election authorities had seized over Rs 129 crore cash, gold and other precious metals with a total value of over Rs 284 crore from all over the state. Tamil Nadu has a total of 67,720 polling stations and 7,780 booths have been categorised as critical and vulnerable where more Central Armed Police Forces personnel, and micro observers were deployed.