Lok Sabha elections: Political parties express concern over polling date clashing with Madurai temple car festival
Padmini Sivarajah | TNN | Mar 11, 2019, 15:06 IST
MADURAI: A day after the Election Commission announced that Lok Sabha elections and bypolls would be held in Tamil Nadu on April 18, representatives of political parties, who attended an all-party meeting convened by Madurai district collector and election officer S Natarajan on Monday, expressed concern that the polling date clashes with the car festival in the Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple here.
Natarajan said a local holiday had been declared for Madurai on April 19 in view of the car festival and the Election Commission had been informed about this.
As the car festival is held in the streets around the temple, officials have been asked to identify the polling stations in the area. The Election Commission would be urged to increase the polling time in these booths.
Natarajan said district administration was ready to conduct polls as per schedule. He said 30 flying squads, 30 static squad teams, video surveillance teams and other monitoring machinery were in place. Monitoring of the model code of conduct was in effect, he added.
Natarajan said a local holiday had been declared for Madurai on April 19 in view of the car festival and the Election Commission had been informed about this.
As the car festival is held in the streets around the temple, officials have been asked to identify the polling stations in the area. The Election Commission would be urged to increase the polling time in these booths.
Natarajan said district administration was ready to conduct polls as per schedule. He said 30 flying squads, 30 static squad teams, video surveillance teams and other monitoring machinery were in place. Monitoring of the model code of conduct was in effect, he added.
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