Hectic parleys for garnering support for winning the Rajya Sabha elections are now over. Just a day ahead of the election, the biggest task before the political parties on Wednesday was to ensure that all of their MLAs cast only valid votes since invalid ones could cost them dear.
At the AIADMK headquarters here, a sample poll was enacted for the MLAs of the AIADMK, CPI, CPM, All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi, Kongu Ilaignar Peravai and AIFB. Senior ministers including O Panneerselvam addressed the MLAs about the rules and regulations and on how the polling is held. Since elections are being conducted for the Rajya Sabha after a gap of 17 years and it is new to most of the present MLAs, the leaders took a ‘class’ on every minute details. For example, the MLAs should not use their own pen to mark their preference in the ballot paper and should use only the pen provided by the Election Commission. The central theme of the one-and-a-half hour meeting was to avoid any invalid vote since it might change the calculations topsy turvy.
All the four candidates of the AIADMK - V Maitreyan, K R Arjunan, T Rathinavel and R Lakshmanan attended the meeting. The AIADMK has appointed eight polling agents including senior functionaries like M Thambidurai, P Venugopal and K P Anbazhagan. CPI floor leader M Arumugam and his colleague K Ulaganathan would be agents for the CPI while DMDK would be represented by D Murugesan and R Mohanraj. R Chakrapani and E V Velu would be agents for the DMK. Everything was ready for conducting the polls at the Committee Room of the State Assembly. The polling will be held between 9 am and 4 pm, on Thursday and the counting of votes will begin from 5 pm. Results would be announced on the same day.