Central TN seats witness by and large peaceful polling

Tiruchy: Bearing a few minor incidents, few EVM issues, boycott threat at some places and the like, polling for the Tiruchirappalli, Karur, Perambalur, Chidambaram (reserve) Mayiladuthurai and Nagapattinam (reserve) Lok Sabha constituencies and by election to the Tiruvarur assembly segments went off peacefully. Braving the heat, people came out in large numbers and by 3 pm, over 60 per cent of voters had cast their votes on Thursday.

Tension prevailed for about two hours at the Narikuravar colony polling booth at suburb Devarayaneri near Tiruchy as a section of Narikuravas declared poll boycott and demanded immediate arrest of a few political functionaries who had allegedly not reached the cash meant for them.

Out of 852 votes of Narikuravas, only 26 cast their votes till 1000 hrs; however, with the intervention of the police, normal polling resumed.

Tiruchy collector and returning officer of the Tiruchirappalli Lok Sabha S. Sivarasu cast his vote at a polling booth in the Kajamali area, while IUML President Prof. K.M. Kader Mohideen, DMK Rajya Sabha member Tiruchy Siva, former DMK minister K N Nehru, Tiruverumbur DMK MLA Mahesh Poyyamozhi, State Ministers Vellamandi Natarajan and Mrs. Valarmathi and others also cast their votes in their respective polling stations.

Polling came to halt for more than two hours at a polling booth at Dheeran Nagar in the city following an EVM glitch; however, polling resumed after the replacement of the faulty  EVM with a spare one.

Visually disabled persons at suburb Nagamangalam cast their votes with the help of Braille system and another group of visually challenged, inmates of Lubra NGO were brought by a separate vehicle by its director Thomas and helped to cast their votes at a polling booth in Tiruchy.

Tension prevailed for a while, as a section of volunteers of VCK and PMK clashed with each other at Ponparappi colony area near Andimadam in Chidambaram Lok Sabha constituency (reserve) in Ariyalur district. A group of volunteers broke the pot (VCK leader Thol. Thirumavalan’s symbol), which was kept on display at Ponparappi colony, triggering the tension.

Protesting against this, VCK volunteers refused to cast their votes, demanding immediate arrest of the PMK men responsible immediately. The agitated VCK men did not turn up for voting till 4 pm, official sources said.

At Silampur polling booth near Andimadam in Chidambaram Lok Sabha, a faulty EVM was replaced and 107 voters, whose votes did not get registered, were given another opportunity to vote on the new EVM.  

Police resorted to a mild cane charge to disperse volunteers of the ruling AIADMK and Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) who clashed near a polling booth at Kekkarai village near Tiruvarur, after a wordy quarrel. In the melee, an auto-rickshaw was fully damaged and a pregnant woman traveling in it was injured. As the situation threatened to get worse, police resorted to mild cane charge to disperse the unruly mob, they added.

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