Coimbatore mayoral by-poll shows low voter turn-out

September 19, 2014 09:09 am | Updated November 16, 2021 05:48 pm IST

COIMBATORE 18/09/2014: 
Visually challenged N. Rangasamy (47) of Kamarajar Nagar at Kurichi in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, on his way to cast his vote for the Mayoral by-poll on Thursday.
Photo: M.Periasamy.

COIMBATORE 18/09/2014: 
Visually challenged N. Rangasamy (47) of Kamarajar Nagar at Kurichi in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, on his way to cast his vote for the Mayoral by-poll on Thursday.
Photo: M.Periasamy.

oimbatore city registered a low of 46.53 per cent polling for the mayoral by-election on Thursday.

The by-poll, necessitated due to the resignation of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (AIADMK) Mayor S.M. Velusamy, witnessed as many as 16 candidates in the fray.

It proved to be a three-cornered contest with AIADMK’s P. Rajkumar facing the battle of ballots with R. Nandha Kumar of Bharatiya Janata Party and C. Padmanabhan of CPI-M. Many of the parties, including Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, chose not to contest.

Urban pockets In some of the urban pockets, the turnout in the morning was low though it marginally picked up later in the day. Voting percentage crossed 20 per cent by 10 a.m. at the booths in Panchayat Union Middle School in Thudiyalur. However, a booth at the Corporation Boys Higher Secondary School in R.S. Puram (East) recorded just 7.7 per cent voting percentage by 11 a.m.

Polling was found to be on a very dull note in pockets which housed literate and affluent population.

At about 9.30 a.m. at the Corporation Middle School on Easwaran Koil Street, a polling official said the average voter turnout in that zone was 15 per cent.

However, there were many who came to the booths early. Nandini Sundar, who had come to cast her vote at a booth in Race Course area with her 85-year-old mother-in-law, said that during the Lok Sabha polls in April this year, the turnout was high even early in the morning. “I am unable to say why the turnout is not so high now,” she said. Chinnaiyan (80) from Siddhapudur was among the early voters as he cast his vote by 8.30 a.m.

Added areas In some of the added areas of the city, daily wage earners came to the polling booth early as they had to rush to work in other towns. “Working is as important as casting our vote. Voting is for country and earning is for the family,” said R. Amutha of Sugunapuram.

There were others like B. Selvi (47), conservancy worker in a private hospital, who said that their employers allowed them to avail themselves of a paid holiday. “But I preferred going to work after casting my vote early,” she said.

Pointing to the low turn out, the CPI (M) candidate C. Padmanabhan said, “Residents of the city were intimidated by the presence of a large number of outsiders and the cash distribution of the AIADMK. This behaviour only showed that the ruling party has been defeated.”

Meanwhile, Kongu Jananayaka Katchi (KJK) founder leader G.K. Nagaraj said that poor voter turn out vindicated their stand that the by-poll for filling up the post of Mayor was unwarranted. It was only a drain on the state exchequer wasting the tax-payers money, he said in a statement. Poll machinery should have provided the NOTA (None of the Above) option in the Electronic Voting Machine.

Such a measure would have helped in knowing the number of electorate who were opposed to this by-poll forced on them, especially when the Assembly elections were due in 2016.

(With inputs from V.S. Palaniappan, M. Soundariya Preetha, R. Sairam and M.K. Ananth)

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