Vellore: Polling for the Vellore Lok Sabha constituency on Monday passed off peacefully, even as 72 per cent of the electorate cast their votes.
After a dull start in the morning, voting picked up considerably in the afternoon and the final figure late this evening may slightly go up. A large number of women including Muslim women had lined up at polling booths to exercise their franchise.
Briefing reporters in Vellore after the polling, the election officer and district collector, Mr. Shanmugasundaram said that voters who had reached the booths by 6 pm were given coupons to enable them to vote, while the voting figures for booths from far-flung hill hamlets were yet to come. Hence, the final voting percentage may vary, he said, adding, it was still four percentage points lower than the previous Lok Sabha election.
Vellore should have gone to the polls along with the 39 other constituencies in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in April last, but the election here was cancelled following seizure of cash by the election officials along with I-T officials.
The Vellore Lok Sabha constituency comprises the Assembly segments of Vellore, Vaniyambadi, Ambur, KV Kuppam, Gudiyatham and Anaicut. The total electorate is 14,32,555 which includes 7,01,351 male voters and 7,31,099 women voters. There are 105 Transgender voters in this constituency.
Though 28 contestants are in the fray, the main contest is between NJP candidate, backed by AIADMK, Mr A C Shanmugam and the DMK candidate, Mr. D.M. Kathir Ananth, son of DMK senior Durai Murugan. The Naam Tamizhar Katchi had fielded Ms. Deepalakshmi.
Polling was held amid tight security in 1,553 booths, the collector said, adding, nothing untoward happened. There were 'small problems' like EVMs' getting stuck initially and in VVPAT machines in 22 booths, he said. Minor scuffle was reported from Vaniyambadi Assembly segment, and barring these few small incidents, polling was totally peaceful, the collector said.
After the polling was completed, all the EVMs and VVPAT machines were safely taken to the strong room at an Engineering college in Ranipet and the room was sealed amid tight police escort. Counting of votes will be taken up on August 9.
Mr. Shanmugasundaram said that the CEO, Mr Satyabrata Sahoo monitored the entire poll process from Chennai through video-conferencing with a great deal of patience and dedication to ensure that the election passed off peacefully.
