74.37% turnout in 1st phase of TN rural local body polls

Chennai: The first phase of the rural local body polls in the nine districts of Tamil Nadu, was relatively peaceful except for some minor skirmishes in Ranipet and Kallikurichi districts between the DMK and the AIADMK supporters. The voter turnout in the first phase of polls was 74.37 per cent.

The polling was held on Wednesday. The second phase of the polls will be held on October 9 and the counting of votes will take place on October 12.

The first phase polls were held for 78 district panchayat ward member posts, 755 panchayat union ward member posts, 1,577 village panchayat president posts, and 12,252 village panchayat ward and member posts.

However, the Amundi panchayat in Katpadi union of Vellore district did not go to polls as the voters boycotted the elections after the panchayat president post was reserved for the Scheduled Caste (Woman). The villagers were sore that there were only 2 SC women and an SC man in the whole village and reserving posts without any criteria was not acceptable.

In a few places in Ranipet, Kallaikurichii and Tenkasi districts, there were minor issues with AIADMK and DMK supporters raising complaints that the names of some of the voters were not proper in the list of voters. This was settled after the intervention of the presiding officers who allowed the votes to be cast after verifying the voter ID cards and accompanying documents.

Senthilnathan, AIADMK block secretary in Tenkasi while speaking to IANS said, "There were some minor issues here, but as a whole election process was good. AIADMK will win the elections with a good majority as people are unhappy over the DMK rule."

With the second phase of polls on October 9, the district leadership of the political parties are actively involved in campaigning and also for gaining last-minute support from the voters.