Three Assembly segments of the Chidambaram Lok Sabha constituency in Ariyalur and Perambalur districts registered good turnout on Friday.
Long queues were seen in most of the polling booths in urban and rural areas of Ariyalur, Jayamkondam, and Kunnam Assembly segments, which were part of the Chidambaram constituency. Women and senior citizens, who wanted to exercise their franchise before the day got hotter, thronged the polling stations in the morning itself to cast votes.
According to official sources, the turnout was about 10% after the first two hours of polling in the Chidambaram constituency that includes Kattumannarkoil, Chidambaram, and Bhuvanagiri Assembly segments in Cuddalore district. It went up to 23.46% by 11 a.m and 37.73% till 1 p.m. The voters turnout went up further to 54.33% at 3 p.m. and 68.01% at 5 p.m. At the end of the deadline for polling at 6 p.m. the constituency registered 74.87%.
Polling was delayed in a few booths because of malfunctioning of electronic voting machines (EVM). The polling officials had to wait for the replacement machines for more than 30 minutes to start the polling at a booth at Sirukadambur near Sendurai. Similarly, they could not start the polling at the prescribed time due to technical glitch in EVMs at two booths in Keelaiyur.
Collector J. Anne Marry Swarna polled her vote at a booth at Government ITI here.
VCK leader and candidate in the Chidambarram Lok Sabha constituency candidate Thol. Thirumavalavan cast his vote at Anganur, his native village. AIADMK candidate M. Chandrahasan exercised his franchise at at polling station at Manakudaiyan village. While Transport Minister and DMK district secretary S.S. Sivasankar cast his vote at Devanur near Andimadam, AIADMK district secretary and former Chief Whip Thamarai S. Rajendran registered his vote at Thamaraikulam.
