Modi urges people to 'vote in record numbers' as Kerala, TN & Puducherry go to polls
New Delhi: Amid the ongoing assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday urged the voters to vote in record numbers.
"Urging all voters in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry to vote in record numbers today & be a part of this festival of democracy," he tweeted.
Tamil Nadu is going on polls on 233 seats, with voting for Aravakurichi constituency having been deferred.
Kerala would see polling for its 140 seats assembly. In Puducherry, 30 seats would go for polls. The polling started at 7 am and would end at 6 pm.
The Election Commission has made additional efforts in the polling booths to provide cover for the voters to come and exercise their franchise without getting drenched in the possible rain.
The Election Commission introduced many innovative measures during this election in Tamil Nadu, including getting booth slips through the helpline number 1950 in electronic mode, knowing the queue status before polling booths through smart phone apps and getting navigation help through Google maps to locate the booths by the voters by feeding their election identity card number in the apps.
Thousands of youth volunteers at grass-root levels are also being pressed into service to help the election authorities to ensure ethical voting and to remind people to come out and exercise their franchise today.
The Kerala Government has made elaborate arrangements for smooth and peaceful conduct of polls. In all, 2.56 crore electors including 1.33 crore women are expected to cast votes.
A total of 1, 203 candidates including 109 females are in the fray. There are 21,646 polling booths across the state. Special arrangements have been made for sensitive and vulnerable polling stations, especially in Kannur district.
Over 9 lakh voters will exercise their franchise in Puducherry on Monday. Voting will take place in 930 polling stations spread over four regions of the
5,382 officials are deputed for polling duties. Over 6,000 police personnel including the central para military forces will provide security for assembly polls.
The Commission has identified 148 polling stations and deployed micro observers and Central forces for additional security.
