Polling to fill up six Rajya Sabha vacancies in Tamil Nadu ended today. A total of 231 of the 234 MLAs of the Tamil Nadu assembly cast their votes by 1.43 PM, official sources said. The three PMK MLAs abstained from voting.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa (Srirangam), DMK leader M Karunanidhi (Thiruvarur), whose daughter Kanimozhi is seeking a second term, his son M K Stalin (Kolathur) and Vijayakant (Rishivanthiyam) were some prominent legislators who cast their votes in the State Secretariat.
Counting will take place this evening after the 4 PM deadline for voting ends.
Most MLAs, including Vijayakant, were first time voters as the election is being held after a 17 year gap.
AIADMK has fielded four candidates, including Dr V Maithreyan even as it extended support to CPI's D Raja.
Seven dissident DMDK MLAs voted seperately.
Earlier, the ballot paper of CPI(M) MLA K Balabarathy was changed after she complained of a smudge on the sheet.
Observer Praveen Kumar showed the ballot paper to the agents of political parties present in the polling hall and the woman MLA was given a fresh ballot paper.
DMDK MLA Arun Subramaniam was reprimanded by officials when he displayed his ballot paper to his party's agent from a distance, with officials asking him to go near his party colleague and show the paper before casting it in the box.