Chennai: The spirit of nationalism was in full flow on Thursday as citizens celebrated their franchise by turning up in large numbers even early morning at the poll booths across the 38 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu, many of them travelling long distance from place of work by tough mode of transport, such as the roof top of speeding buses.
By-elections were also held for 18 Assembly seats while the poll in Vellore Lok Sabha constituency was cancelled allegedly due to the excessive play of money power.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami waits in a queue to cast his vote in Salem. (Photo: DC)
The Election Commission at 7 pm told reporters that about 72 per cent of the (nearly six crore) TN electorate had voted and stressed that the figure was only tentative and could change. When the final tally is put out early Friday, the vote percentage is expected to overtake the 73.67 of 2014 elections, which is good news for the Opposition captained by the DMK, whose leader M K Stalin has been claiming there would be change of government in the state as well when the BJP's defeat happens after the votes are counting on May 23.
Actor and MNM chief Kamal Haasan and his daughter Shruti proudly display their inked fingers. (Photo: DC)
The high voter turnout "shows there is a wave for Amma and MGR", said AIADMK senior leader D. Jayakumar. Ally Pon Radhakrishnan, Central minister, trying best to get the Lotus to bloom in the Dravidian land, said the BJP was sure to benefit from "a silent revolution that's happening" through this massive democratic festival" to decide the fate of India. An interesting phenomenon witnessed in the course of these elections is that only the DMK and the AIADMK were seen initially, by the media and other political observers, as the main players in this poll battle but as days went by during the fierce campaigning for votes, the MNM of Kamal Haasan and the Nam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK) of Seeman also seemed to have engaged the public interest, while TTV Dhinakaran with his AMMK already looked a wrecker for his original abode, the AIADMK. And on the poll day, indicators from ground level showed that the AMMK and NTK picked up considerable bulk in the southern districts while Kamal's MNM did fairly good in urban centres. The doomsday predictors, who were sure of violence marring the high-stakes elections, were silenced by the fairly peaceful poll. DMK filed a complaint early in the day with DGP (elections) Ashutosh Shukla seeking extra protection for the voters as there was information that the AIADMK "planned to indulge in booth-capturing" after 3 pm. Reacting to the DMK complaint, CEC Satyabrata Sahoo since polling was by and large peaceful and there have not been any complaints of booth-capturing. "We have not received any complaints of booth-capturing, neither are there any law and order issues", Sahoo told reporters. Chennai City Police Commissioner A.K. Viswanathan said polling was peaceful and incident-free in the three Lok Sabha constituencies within Chennai and parts of three other LS constituencies that fall under Greater Chennai Police limits. He visited several places in the city and reviewed security arrangements. Looking pretty much tanned and tired after his hectic campaigning that started at his father's Tiruvarur constituency on March 20, Stalin came to his poll booth at SIET Women's College along with his wife to cast vote. And after that, he told the waiting reporters he hoped money would not influence the voters and in any case, the Election Commission had been functioning "like an ally of the ruling parties at the Centre and the State".
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