Chennai: The major political parties in the State, the DMK and the AIADMK, traded charges of money distribution to voters on the eve of the elections to the State Assembly on Thursday even as the Election machinery cranked up to welcome voters to the 75,064 polling booths across the State from 7 am to exercise their franchise.
Several candidates and others filed specific complaints of irregularities by political parties and party leaders appealed to their party members to cast their votes in the forenoon and beat the broiling summer heat. DMK president and Chief Minister M K Stalin urged his booth agents (BLA2, BLC and BDA) as soon as polling started and then keep a vigil over the conduct of the elections.
Apart from charges of money distribution to voters, some candidates and individuals raised complaints to the Chief Electoral Officer Archana Patnaik accusing rival parties of keeping outsiders inside their constituencies and sought their eviction.
A huge sum of Rs 1.5 crore in cash was seized from a house in Mylapore by the authorities who said that money was kept for distribution by the DMK. Patnaik said that the value of cash and gift articles seized was Rs 126.2 crore.
Police and security personnel belonging to the central forces had already been deployed in sensitive localities, the polling booths, where the other polling officials had begun to work for the conduct of the elections that would go on till 6 pm. All those who enter the booth premises by 6 pm would be allowed to vote after waiting for their turn even if there was a long queue at that time.
Apart from Stalin, other leaders of political parties, too, instructed their followers to cast their vote without fail. Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) president Vijay asked his supporters to vote between 7 am and 12 noon and ensure that there was 100 percent voting.
Making a strange allegation against the TVK, L Devasahayam from Vyasarpadi said the ‘Biggest Online Political Campaign’ announced on social media platforms by that party on April 21 violated election norms as a 48 hour silent period had to be observed prior to polling.
P Adikesavan of Mylapore said that a plan was afoot to take videos of people casting their voters in favour of the TVK and then make the visuals go viral on social media platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram and so on.
The live telecast of the polling was against the rules and would also create a false narrative about the people’s political preference, he said, adding that the TVK did it in the recent elections to the Puducherry Assembly elections.
The final electoral rolls prepared on April 6 has a total number of 5,73,43,291 electors – 2,80,30,658 of them male, 2,93,04,905 female and 7,728 belonging to the third gender – and they would be visiting 75,064 polling stations and 33,211 polling station locations to exercise their franchise on April 23.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
