Coimbatore: The western region has recorded higher voter turnout than the state average in the assembly polls held on Tuesday. However, urbanised Coimbatore district had the lowest turnout of 68.7% in western Tamil Nadu, while rural Dharmapuri recorded a turnout of 82.35%.
While the backward Palacode constituency in Dharmapuri, from where education minister K P Anbalagan had won four times and contested this time too, registered the voter turnout of 87.3%, Edappadi constituency in Salem, which saw chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami crossing sword with DMK’s Sampath Kumar, came second with 85% polling.
Veerapandi in Salem and Pennagaram in Dharmapuri also saw more than 80% polling. “Dharmapuri historically records higher voter turnout than other districts in the region. This is primarily because the entire district comprises of rural areas, where people take voting seriously,” said an election officer, who didn’t want to be named. Several Dharmapuri residents, who were working as daily wagers in Karnataka and Kerala, had returned home to vote on April 6, he said.
Even in Salem, rural voters made a beeline to the poll booths right from the morning and returned home with their fingers inked. “Political parties were also pro-active in this region to ensure 100% voting,’’ the officer said. In several villages, cadres of political parties knew the voters by their name. “In small villages, they would know who has voted and who is yet to step out of their houses on each street. So, they would approach those households and persuade the residents to vote,” said another officer.
On the other hand, urbanised Coimbatore had the lowest voter turnout in the western region. Three constituencies, which had the lowest turnout in the region, were in Coimbatore city - Coimbatore North, Coimbatore South and Singanallur. These three were followed by two segments each in Tirupur and Erode.
Some of the constituencies such as Mettupalayam and Kinathukadavu recorded a higher poll percentage than the previous elections, but many recorded lesser votes than the past.
Election officials said they had conducted awareness programmes to increase voter turnout and attributed the poor response to factors such as the Covid-19 pandemic situation and extreme heat.