TIRUNELVELI: When the polling concluded on Monday, 66.35 per cent voters had turned up to exercise their franchise in Nanguneri Assembly segment. The turnout was five per cent lower than the count in the 2016 Assembly election, owing largely to Devendrakula Vellalar community boycotting the polls.
A spell of rain prevented a majority of voters from heading towards the polling booths in the morning but they more than compensated by turning up in large numbers at the booths after 11 am. AIADMK candidate V Narayanan cast his vote at Reddiarpatti, where Congress candidate Ruby Manoharan had a chance meeting with him and shook his hands.
Polling was delayed for about three hours in one of the polling booths at Vadukachimathil,where the election officials had to change the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) twice. Till 12 pm, only 121 out of 670 votes were polled and about 80 voters were seen queuing up even after 6 pm with the tokens issued by the election officials.
Speaking to TNIE, a first-time voter, B Sivaraja (18), from Pillaikulam said that he was happy that he had fulfilled his democratic duty. Another first-time voter, K Shri Nandhini (18) of Kalakkad, said she chose her candidate after an analysis of candidate’s bio-data from newspapers.
With nearly 3,000 police personnel keeping vigil, no incident of violence was reported from across the constituency. Asked whether the call given by a political party leader to a particular community not to exercise franchise would warrant action, CEO Satyrabrata Sahoo, said, “As per the rules, no one can prevent voters from exercising their franchise.”