89.24 per cent people casts their vote for Yercaud by-election.
Yercaud: A record 89.24 per cent of voters exercised franchise in the by-election to the Yercaud Assembly constituency on Wednesday.
It was the highest ever voter turnout in the hilly tribal constituency. The AIADMK, which scored a hat-trick of wins in the last three by-elections, was fighting for a fourth straight triumph and the large turnout of women queuing up at the poll booths heightened the hopes of the ruling party members.
The AIADMK’s P. Saroja, whose husband’s death had caused the by-poll, is taking on the DMK challenger V.Maran in this poll. Her campaigners seem confident they would be able to hugely improve the victory margin when the votes are counted on Sunday.
Long queues of men and women, young and old, were seen at all the 290 polling booths in the reserved constituency right from seven in the morning. When the polling ended peacefully at 5 pm, as many as 2,14,444 voters out of the total 2,40,290 electors cast their franchise. A total of 1,05,620 men and 1,08,820 women, besides four transgenders voted. District collector K. Maharabhushanam attributed the high turnout to the enthusiasm of the voters.
The polling was monitored by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) and district election officer through web casting.
“There was a video coverage of the proceedings at all the polling stations, as well as SMS based poll monitoring system,” said CEO Praveen Kumar.
After the closure of the poll, the electronic voting machines (EVMs) were stored in the strong room of the counting centre at CSI Polytechnic at Hasthampatti in Salem. The Central Armed Police force will guard the inner perimeter of the counting centre, said the CEO.
A total of 2,500 policemen were deployed to ensure peace during the election, in which 11 candidates contested.
AIADMK’s P Saroja cast her vote at Pappanaickenpatty middle school with her family while DMK's Maran exercised franchise at Poovanur. Only the parties in power or their allies have won the last 15 by-polls over the last six years in Tamil Nadu.
( Source : dc )
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