70-year-old Maruthappan from Sinthamani Nagar, Kovilpatti, got quite the shock on poll day as his name was found to be deleted from the voters’ list citing his demise. The discrepancy was discovered when he had approached the polling officers at the Puthugramam polling station with his booth slip to cast his vote. Subsequently, after obtaining his fingerprints, the officials allowed him to exercise his franchise.
A case of mistaken identities
News spread like wildfire that AIADMK leader and former Tiruppur South MLA S Gunasekaran has launched a dharna inside a polling booth in Tiruppur city as his vote was purportedly cast by someone else. Soon enough, a presser was organised where the former MLA lambasted the ECI. When a reporter there asked him to hold up his voter ID for the cameras, Gunasekaran looked rather puzzled. “Why my voter ID,” he asked. The reporter replied, “Your vote was cast by someone else, we want to know more about it.” The AIADMK leader looked shocked, he said, “It was not my vote. It was his vote that was cast by someone else,” and pointed to a youngster there who happened to be the son of an AIADMK functionary. Taken aback, the reporters pulled away their mics and left the spot.
Suffrage stutters to a start
Despite the EVM mock drill conducted earlier on Friday, the voting machine placed at room 175 of the Adi Dravidar Welfare Government Higher Secondary School in Karai, Ranipet, failed to register the very first vote cast by the District Collector S Valarmathi, with the VVPAT throwing an error. Shortly thereafter, booth officials identified a wiring issue and promptly repaired the EVM. Meanwhile, the collector ensured the proper functioning of the other ballot units at the polling centre, and then proceeded to cast her vote in room 175.
(Contributed by S Godson Wisely Dass, Saravanan M P, Praveena S A; compiled by Suriya B)