KARUR, THANJAVUR, MADURAI, PUDUCHERRY : Elections to Aravakurichi and Thanjavur Assembly constituencies passed off peacefully on Saturday, with preliminary figures made available by the respective district administrations suggesting a polling percentage of 82.13 in Aravakurichi and 69.41 in Thanjavur.
The bypolls were held at Tirupparankundram in Madurai district and Nellithope in Puducherry, which saw polling percentages of 71.04 and 85.76, respectively.
Compared to the 2011 polling of 85.94 per cent, Aravakurichi in Karur district recorded a lesser margin this election. At Pallapatti, first-time voters said they were voting in hope of finding a solution to the drinking water scarcity in the area. “We have been waiting for a solution to our problem for long and have told the candidates the same when they campaigned in our village,” said some of the college students who voted.
In Thanjavur, stray incidents of representatives of political parties entering into arguments with police were reported.
Polling was peaceful at Tirupparankundram, despite apprehensions of protests at Avaniyapuram, famed for Jallikattu, in the aftermath of Supreme Court’s refusal to lift the ban on the traditional sport. ]
Collector K Veera Raghava Rao said the polling per cent has seen a marginal increase when compared with the 70.31 per cent recorded during the 2016 general elections.
When voting began, around 50 people gathered near a polling station at Avaniyapuram and attempted to stage a protest condemning the Jallikattu ban. After police intervention, they dispersed. In the afternoon, another set of people came to the polling station taking a bull along.
Tirupparankundram bypoll was necessitated after the winning candidate S M Seenivel of the AIADMK died.
In Nellithope, polling was marginally higher than the 85.43 per cent registered in the May Assembly elections.
There was a skirmish between AIADMK’s Om Sakthi Segar and DMK’s former councillor Vellaivan, outside a polling station at Anna Nagar.
Following a verbal exchange between former Congress MLA A John Kumar and AIADMK functionaries, extra security was provided to the residence of Kumar. The bypoll was necessitated following the resignation of Kumar to facilitate V Narayanasamy, a non-member of the UT Assembly, to contest the election to become an elected member.