Chennai: Chennaiites, who awoke to pleasant weather on D-Day, voted briskly in the morning with the 35 per cent mark recorded around noon. Where the voters played truant was in the posh areas of south and central Chennai when people seem to have decided post-lunch to take the day off altogether. The city’s final poll percentage was about 60.47 per cent, a dip of about 7 per cent compared to the 2011 assembly polls.
Earlier in the day, the poll mood had been infectious with chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, DMK president and former CM, M. Karunanidhi, DMDK leader Vijayakanth and M K Stalin voting in Chennai along with the cine stars who attracted a lot of attention, but the momentum faded after 3 pm with booths running dry without voters. In fact, polling and normal life went hand in hand in constituencies like R K Nagar, Royapuram, Perambur and Harbour and the usual election fervour was totally absent just before poll closing time.
