Of the 10 Assembly constituencies in the district, Pollachi has stood out in terms of polling percentage. In Tuesday’s polling, 77.28% voters had voted, which is nearly two percentile points more than the second highest constituency, Sulur, where 75.49% voters had voted.
In numbers, the Pollachi figure translates to 1,75,465 of the 2,27,049 voters having exercised this franchise. And, as in the other nine constituencies in the district, more men had voted in Pollachi.
Sources in the AIADMK and DMK said the high polling percentage reflected the people’s anger on the politicisation of the infamous sexual assault case that came to be known as the Pollachi case.
The sources in both the parties said the surge in polling percentage in Pollachi would favour them and work against the other.
But, voters in Pollachi had shown a high voting percentage even in the last Assembly election, much before the crime came to light. In 2016, 77.31% voters in Pollachi had voted and the next Assembly constituency that reported a high polling percentage was Sulur again at 75.22.
The 2019 Lok Sabha election was no different. Though Pollachi was an Assembly segment in the Pollachi Lok Sabha constituency, the voters there had shown increased participation in the voting exercise as 75.90% voting was recorded.
This showed that irrespective of whether it was an Assembly or a Lok Sabha election, voters in Pollachi went out to vote and in good numbers at that. This was unlike a few Assembly constituencies like Thondamuthur where the polling percentage in Assembly poll was higher than Parliamentary election.
Sources in the town said this had to do with not just increased political awareness among the voters, it also had to do with the local units of political parties joining hands to raise above partisanship to take up common cause. The upgrade of the Government Hospital, Pollachi, being a case in point.
Explaining the political awareness part of the argument, the sources said though Pollachi Assembly constituency was rural compared to a few other constituencies in the district, the voters there were educated and were economically well-off as well, what with the town being the centre of coir and other agriculture-based industries.
Therefore, it should not be surprising that voters in Pollachi voted in good numbers.
As for the voting percentage in the 10 constituencies in the district, Coimbatore North, Coimbatore South and Pollachi showed a marginal dip in votes polled in 2021 election on Tuesday vis-à-vis 2016 Election.
Coimbatore North showed 59.08% voters as having polled as against 61.72 in 2016. Likewise, in Coimbatore South 60.72% voters voted on Tuesday as against 61.91% voters in 2016. And, in Pollachi, 77.28% voters voted as against 77.31 voters in 2016.
In the other seven constituencies, the polling percentage was higher as was the district average and given the fact that the Election Commission of India conducted the election in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic, the number was encouraging, said an officer.
