Chennai, Apr 19 (UNI) Polling to elect 39 members to the18th Lok Sabha
from Tamil Nadu began on Friday morning, amid tight security.
Along with the Lok Sabha polls, bye-election to the Vilavancode Assembly seat, which fell
vacant following the resignation of sitting Congress MLA Ms S.Vijayadharani, was also
held.
An estimated 6.23 crore voters, including 3.17 crore women and 3.06 crore men, are
expected to cast their ballots in this democratic exercise as the polling began at 0700 hrs
and will end at 1800 hrs.
According to initial reports, no major untoward incident was reported from any part of the
State, barring some minor glitches in the EVMs, which were rectified by the authorities.
As the mercury level has been rising in several parts of the State during the last few days,
long queues were seen in a majority of the polling booths, as the voters turned up early to
beat the searing heat.
In the single phase polling, being held in the first phase as part of the seven-phase elections
announced by the Election Commission across the country, a total of 1.58 lakh Electronic
Voting Machines (EVMs) are being used in this elections.
Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said all arrangements have been made
to ensure a free and fair poll, while exuding confidence that the turn out, which was around
72-73 per cent mark in the previous elections, will surpass this year with the enrollment of
nearly ten lakh first time voters, with more than five lakh in the 18-19 age group.
Polling is being held in 68,321 polling across the State, including 177 auxiliary stations of which
8,050 booths were identified as sensitive and 180 as hyper/more sensitive, where additional
security forces were deployed.
The fate of a total of 950 candidates--876 men and 74 women--candidates, including 609
Independents will be decided today.
A total of 3.54 lakh employees, including teachers and government servants, are being
involved in poll duty.
In all 190 companies of Central forces are deployed for polling duty as part of stringent
security measures.
After the polling, which will end after all those who had entered the booths and are waiting
in the queue at 1800 hrs, are allowed to vote, the EVMs will be sealed and taken to the
strong rooms in counting Centres, where 15 companies of Central forces will be deployed
for security.
A three-tier security will be in force, with the first layer being monitored by the paramilitary
forces, the second tier by the Tamil Nadu police and the third tier by the local police personnel.
MORE UNI GV 0750