Mayhem after mystery vehicles enter Coimbatore counting centre

CPIMBATORE: Tension gripped Coimbatore's GCT college campus, where counting of votes for the Assembly election will be held on May 2, after police stationed three mobile toilet vehicles there on Tuesday night.

With DMK and Congress members raising questions as to why the vehicles were placed there at night when there were toilets on the premises, police later moved the mobile toilets off campus.

Political party agents charged with keeping an eye on the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) stored in the strongrooms on the campus alerted their party heads when the vehicles were first brought to the premises. Following this, the DMK Singanallur candidate N Karthik, Coimbatore North candidate VM Shanmugasundaram, Kinathukkadavu candidate Kurichi N Prabhakaran along with the Congress candidate for Coimbatore South Mayura S Jayakumar and CPI candidate for Valparai M Arumugam rushed to the campus.

The candidates inspected the vehicles along with their supporters to check if they had been stationed to aid in any malpractice. They found that the vehicles were indeed mobile toilets for the use of police personnel.

However, they questioned the police as to why the vehicles were brought when the campus had toilets and why they were moved at night, without intimating political parties. They asked the police officials to make such arrangements in the day time rather than at night. Police assured them that this would not recur and later the vehicles were moved off campus.