TIRUNELVELI: Voters of Devendrakula Vellalar (DVR) community boycotted the by-election en masse in the Nanguneri assembly constituency, demanding the state government to issue a GO naming seven SC sub-castes as DVR here on Monday.
The DVR people in Unnankulam, Aarampoondarkulam, Keezha Ariyangulam, Aayarkulam, Melapattam, Puthumanai, Nochikulam, Kunnathur, Paruthipadu, Sirumalanchi and Subramaniyapuram and about 50 other villages hoisted black flags in their houses and public places marking their boycott.
In the DVR dominant polling stations, only the voters of Nadar, Thevar, Konar and other community turned to vote. As many as 27 voters of Nadar community cast their votes till 10 am in one of the Aayarkulam polling booths where there are 682 voters.
Around 23.89 per cent of votes were polled till 11 am across the constituency. The AIADMK candidate V Narayanan cast his vote in Reddiarpatti where he and the Congress candidate Ruby Manoharan happened to meet and shacked hands. Polling was delayed for about three hours in Vadukachimathil polling stations where the election officials had to change the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) twice.
Till 12 pm, only 121 out of 670 votes were polled there. Due to the EVM malfunction, the polling was delayed for about one hour in Government Higher Secondary School, Kalakkad.
With the deployment of nearly 3,000 police personnel in the district and city police limit of the constituency, no untoward incidents were taken place across the constituency till 12 pm.