More than 73 per cent of polling have been recorded in Vellore, Arakkonam, Arani, and Tiruvannamalai Lok Sabha constituencies on Friday.
Election officials said that among them, Arakkonam has registered the highest polling of 73.92% , followed by Arani (73.77%), Tiruvannamalai (73.35%), and Vellore (73.04%). Despite the heat, many voters, especially senior citizens, came to the polling booth as early as 7.30 a.m. “We came early to polling booths to avoid the scorching sun. Despite the rush, we managed to vote quickly at the polling booth,” said K. Varshini, a voter in Vellore.
Wheelchairs with at least one volunteer to assist the senior citizens and persons with disabilities were easily available in each booth across Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur, and Tiruvannamalai districts, which comprises four Lok Sabha constituencies. First-time voters turned up in large numbers, especially in towns like Vellore, Ambur, Vaniyambadi, Arakkonam, Ranipet, Arcot, Tiruvannamalai and Arani.
The four Lok Sabha constituencies had 5,189 polling booths that were manned by over 28,000 election officials.
Technical glitches in the EVMs were reported in Ambur, Gudiyatham, Anaicut (Vellore) and Ranipet where polling was temporarily stopped for an hour before the machines were replaced with new ones. In Arakkonam, rear mirror of the car of Vinod Gandhi, son of Minister for Handlooms and Textiles R. Gandhi was allegedly damaged by PMK cadre following an altercation between the DMK and the PMK cadres at a polling booth on Friday.
In a surprise move, farmers, who have been protesting against the State government’s plan to acquire a vast tract of land for the proposed Phase-3 project of SIPCOT industrial park at the Anakavoor panchayat union near Cheyyar town in Tiruvannamalai, came in large numbers to cast their vote at the polling booths in their respective villages near the town . Except Narmapallam village where low voter turn-out was recorded, voter turnout was high in other villages like Melma, Kurumbur, Thethurai, Nedungal, Athi, Vada Alapirandan, Veerapakkam and Lianeerkundram. These villages come under Arani Lok Sabha constituency, election officials said.
Hilly and tribal areas in Jawadhu Hills in Tiruvannamalai also witnessed smooth polling on Friday, with more than 65 percent of polling recorded in the hills. In the hills there are 272 tribal hamlets in its 11 village panchayats . Of this, tribal hamlets in Padavedu hills has limited accessibility and can only be reached through tractors. Election officials roped in local tribal drivers from the hills to transport election materials to remote hamlets on the eve of the election.
