VELLORE: Vellore parliamentary constituency recorded nearly 72 per cent polling on Monday, officials said.
Polling in the Lok Sabha constituency started at 7 am in the morning. EVMs in three of the 1553 polling booths suffered glitches but rectified shortly to commence voting.
Among Assembly segments, Anicut registered the highest turnout of 75.04 per cent in the first two hours.
Shanmuga Sundaram received first-time voters with bouquets at a polling station located at Allapuram in Vellore city.
Barring a few incidents of technical glitches, polling got underway smoothly, sources said.
Talking to reporters, Shanmugam Sundaram appealed all voters to exercise the franchise.
"All the people should cast their votes. Booth slips are not mandatory, any of the documents authorised by ECI can be shown for casting vote," he said.
Collector also asked voters not to give room for any inducements.
Polling is being held at 1553 booths spread across six Assembly segments-Anaikattu, Vellore, KV Kuppam, Gudiyatham, Ambur and Vaniyambadi.
Shanmuga Sundaram said previous polls recorded 75 per cent turnout and hoped the turnout would not be less than 75 per cent this time as well.
The police have made elaborate security arrangements for ensuring smooth conduct of polling by deploying a contingent of 6000 personnel including Central Armed Paramilitary Forces.
IG P Nagarajan and DIG N Kamini are supervising the security arrangements. The SPs are moving on the constituency manning the personnel.
As many as 28 candidates are seeking a mandate in Vellore. AIADMK's AC Shanmugam and DMK candidate DM Kathir Anand have locked in a direct fight in Vellore where polls scheduled for April was deferred following huge cash haul.
Assembly segment wise break up-
Vellore 67.05%
Anicut 75.04%
K.v.kuppam 82.62%
Gudiyatham 68.90%
Vaniyambadi 73.22%
Ambur 70.51 %