Brisk polling in southern districts of Tamil Nadu; Ramanathapuram Collector says over 30 % polling recorded at 11 a.m.
Brisk polling commenced in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu on Thursday. Except for a few complaints of technical snag in the ballot unit in a couple of polling stations in Dindigul and Thoothukudi, it was largely peaceful, officials said.
The south zone consists of 10 districts namely – Theni, Dindigul, Madurai, Virudhunagar, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Kanniyakumari and Thoothukudi.
There are 58 Assembly Constituencies.
From the start at 7 a.m., there were long queues in the rural pockets of Madurai city and suburban areas. Women voters turned up in large numbers. Despite scorching Sun, turnout in the first 60 minutes was 18 %, officials said.
A few BLOs in Madurai North, Madurai West and in Melur complained of breakfast not being served till 9 .a.m., Likewise, in Kanniyakumari district, the women police said that the number of rest rooms was very less when compared to the presence of women police deployed in the district.
Prominent political personalities, candidates in the fray and ministers cast their votes in the respective polling stations since 8 a.m.
The Ramanathapuram District Collector Simranjeet Singh Kahlon said that the average polling percentage at 11 a.m. was 31.86 in the four Assembly Constituencies. There were no issues and polling was going on peacefully, he said.
In Tirunelveli, Tenkasi and Kanniyakumari district, voting went on smoothly. In some rural pockets in Tirunelveli, people had left the booth slips at their dwellings. However, the polling staff in the station helped them cast their votes.
In Pottalurani in Thoothukudi district, a little over 900 voters had given a boycott call. Their grievance was that the district administration had not closed the fish processing units in the area, which had spoilt the eco-system, they alleged. — L. Srikrishna
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