Polling for 18 assembly seats peaceful in Agra, Goa, Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI/ PANAJI/AGRA: Brisk and peaceful voting was seen in the four Tamil Nadu Assembly constituencies of Aravakuruchi, Sulur, Thiruparankundram and Ottapidaram, on Sunday which was the last day of polling for the 17th general elections.

Polling for 18 assembly seats took place on 18 April, along with the 38 Lok Sabha seats. The remaining four polled on Sunday. There were reports of delayed voting in some booths due to technical glitches in the EVMS. The repolling ordered in 13 booths of Erode, Dharmapuri, Tiruvallur and Cuddalore Lok Sabha constituencies.

Voters in the four Assembly constituencies will decide the electoral fate of 137 candidates in the fray. The main contest is between the ruling AIADMK, DMK and Independent legislator TTV Dhinakaran-floated AMMK. Actor-politician Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) candidates were also in the contention. According to the Election Commission, about 16,000 police personnel were deployed in the four assembly seats for security purposes.

Low turnout marked polling for the Agra North assembly by-election on Sunday. By 5 pm, the polling percentage was a dismal 36.25%, according to officials. The bypoll was an outcome of the demise of BJP MLA Jagan Prasad Garg on April 10; there were 12 candidates in the fray.

A total of 75.28% voters cast their votes in the Panaji state assembly bypoll to elect a successor to former chief minister Manohar Parrikar who represented the seat for nearly three decades since 1994 barring a brief period when he was the Union Defence Minister. “The polls were incident free there was only one complaint of voter intimidation that is being inquired into,” District Election Officer and North Goa Collector R Menaka said.