Chennai, Apr 6 (UNI) About 26.29 per cent of the
total 6.29 crore electorate have cast their ballots
till 1100 hours, as the single phase polling in one
of the most fiercely contested Assembly elections
apart from the bypoll to the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha
seat, progressed peacefully.
Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo
told reporters that 26.29 per cent of votes were
recorded in the first four hours till 1100 hrs.
While Namakkal district recorded the highest poll
percentage of 28.33 per cent, the southern Tirunelveli
district recorded the lowest of 20.98 per cent.
Chennai city recorded 23.67 per cent, he added.
A total of 3,998 candidates are in the fray to elect
the 16th Assembly.
For the Kanniyakumari bypoll, which was necessitated
following the death of Congress MP H Vasanthakumar,
a total of 12 candidates are in the fray.
The bypoll will witness a direct fight between former
Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan of BJP and Vasantha
kumar's son Vijay Vasanth of Congress.
The BJP is facing the polls as part of AIADMK alliance
and the Congress as an ally of the Opposition DMK.
As the covid pandemic protocols are in force, polling
for the 234-Assembly seats began in more than 88,000
polling booths across the state and is continuing
peacefully.
Barring for some minor glitches in the Electronic Voting
Machines (EVMs), that delayed the polling process, brisk
turn out is reported in various booths across the State
as people, in a bid to beat the searing hit--Tamil Nadu
is in the grip of intense heat wave for the last few days
--turned up early to cast their ballots.
The elections will witness a five-cornered contest with the
fronts headed by the traditional dravidian rivals, the ruling
AIADMK and the Opposition DMK, vying with each other
to win the confidence of the voters, apart from the Makkal
Needhi Maiam (MNM) of actor-politician Kamal Haasan,
ousted AIADMK leader and late J Jayalalithaa's close aide
V K Sasikala's nephew TTV Dhinakaran and actor-director
Seeman's Naam Tamizhar Katchi in the fray.
Though it appeared a five-cornered contest on paper, it will
once again be a two-horse race, with the main fight between
the AIADMK and the DMK.
This election will be an acid test for the leadership of the AIADMK
and the DMK, who are testing the waters in the absence of two tall
leaders and late Chief Ministers J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi
respectively, notwithstanding the DMK sweeping the 2019 Lok Sabha
polls.
While AIADMK is eyeing for a hat-trick of wins, having won
in 2011 and 2016 Assembly polls, the DMK, which on its own
is claiming to be banking on the anti-incumbency factor, is
desparate to come back to power after being in the Opposition
for ten years, in what is billed as a no-holds barred contest.
UNI GV 1145