Chennai:
Nearly 80 per cent of the over 22,000 voters cast their votes in the Erode East by-election held in Tamil Nadu on Monday and the polling exercise was peaceful, officials said, though campaigning for it was marred by controversies and violence.
As of 5pm, the voter turnout was 79.58%, according to Tamil Nadu’s chief election officer Satyabrata Sahoo. Voting began at 7am and closed at 6pm.
While 77 candidates are in the fray, the bypoll contest is directly between Congress candidate EVKS Elangovan and AIADMK’s K S Thennarasu. Naam Tamilar Katchi’s Menkaka Navaneethan is the only woman candidate and actor-turned-politician Vijayankanth’s Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam’s (DMDK) S Anand is contesting.
The DMK-led coalition fielded Congress’ Elangovan after his son and MLA Thirumahan Everaa’ died in January, which necessitated this by-poll. Speaking to reporters after casting his vote, Elangovan exuded confidence that 80% of the people would have voted for the ‘hand symbol’ as it represents a secular alliance. “Even before they announced my name, people had decided to vote for secularism. The win will strengthen chief minister M K Stalin’s 20-month-old government,” said Elangovan. “Similarly, the results will also be an outcome of Rahul Gandhi’s (Bharat Jodo) yatra,” the Congress candidate said. “This is also a precursor to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.”
The AIADMK complained that the voting ink was of poor quality and that it can come off easily. “We are hearing issues about the ink,” Thenarrasu told reporters, adding that they would report it. He claimed that he would win by a margin of 25,000 votes.
AIADMK’s S Inbaraj filed a complaint on the ink with the election commission. Returning officer K Sivakumar told media that they are using the ink supplied by the Election Commission of India and when they inquired they didn’t find fault with it.
“Polling went off peacefully,” said Erode district collector H Krishnanunni, who was among the early voters. Due to defects, EVMs machines were replaced in five places, he added. To keep law and order situation in control, more than 1,500 local police personnel and close to 700 CRPF personnel were deployed.
Bigwigs of all the parties campaigned for the bypoll, for which 238 polling stations were set up.
While the bypoll result would have no immediate impact on the state’s present political landscape, it could set the tone for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
DMK president and chief minister Stalin had appealed to the people to consider the bypoll as an opportunity to evaluate the good performance of his government which delivered on its promises and vote for his party’s ally, the Congress. AIADMK top leader K Palaniswami squarely blamed the ruling party over a host of issues, including rise in electricity tariff and not getting NEET exemption for Tamil Nadu as assured and appealed to the people to teach the ruling party a fitting lesson by voting for his party’s ‘two leaves’ symbol.
Returning officer K Sivakumar said, “Peaceful polling was conducted and completed without any incident”.
Some voters in polling stations who were in the queue by 6 pm were provided tokens and allowed to vote. After polling ended, police, along with paramilitary personnel, took out a march to instill confidence among people and prevented congregation of public and party workers to rule out scope for untoward incidents.
A few alleged technical glitches were reported, prompting authorities to suspend voting in two booths.
The AIADMK complained to the returning officer that some DMK men were involved in distribution of cash at Asokapuram, but when authorities rushed to the spot they did not find anyone, officials said.
At Veerapanchathiram, complaints were received that votes were not recorded for the intended candidate after pressing a particular button on the electronic voting machine (EVM). At Brough Road, EVM did not function properly. In both places, officials suspended voting for sometime, before resuming after addressing the glitches.
With PTI inputs