Chennai: All arrangements were already in place for the conduct of elections to the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and the Vilavancode Assembly constituency in Kanyakumari district that had been scheduled for April 19, in the first of the seven phase general election, while counting of votes would be done on June 4 after the completion of polling all over the country, the Chief Electoral officer Satyabrata Sahoo said on Saturday.
Sahoo, who met the media in Chennai soon after the Election Commission of India unveiled in New Delhi the election schedule for the country, said vigil in the State had been increased and that he would interact with the district collectors on Monday to work out the strategy for holding fair and free elections in a peaceful manner.
In Tamil Nadu, the Gazette notification for the elections will be issued on March 20 marking the start of the filing of nominations, which will go on till March 27. Scrutiny would be on March 28 and the last date for withdrawal of nominations would be March 29, he said.
The Model Code of Conduct had come into force with the announcement of the dates, he said and cautioned people against carrying more than Rs 50,000 cash in person. Members of the public could lodge complaints of any poll violation with the c-vigil app, which would be immediately would be looked into, Sahoo said’
He said 579 polling booths in the State had been identified as troublesome and extra security reinforcements would be deployed there by engaging both the personnel of the State Police and from the 200 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces that were expected to be despatched to the State.
Facilities for the over 10 lakh people, aged more than 85 years, to cast their votes from home would be made available if an application was made in advance in Form 12-B, he said.
Booth slips would be distributed a week ahead of polling, for which all arrangements had been made, he said.
To a question if participation in Iftar parties would amount to code violation, Sahoo clarified that mere participation would not but canvassing for votes there was not permitted.
Replying to a query on the swearing in of K Ponmudi, whose recent conviction in a case had been stopped by the Supreme Court, as a State Minister, the CEO said that it could be done only after obtaining the permission of the Election Commission of India.
Ponmudi had resigned from the Minister’s post after the now withheld conviction. He had not been disqualified as an MLA as there was no by-election for his Thirukoilyur constituency. The by-election to the Vilavancode constituency has been necessitated by the resignation of the erstwhile sitting Congress MLA Vijayadharani, who switched over to the BJP.
