Barring a minor clash between workers of the ruling All India N.R. Congress (AINRC) and the Congress and poll boycott by fishermen of Veerampattinam, the Union Territory of Puducherry witnessed brisk, smooth and peaceful polling on Wednesday.
Long queues were seen in most of the booths including urban and rural areas in Puducherry since morning. Even handicapped and elderly persons turned up on their own to exercise their democratic right in several areas.
Most of the booths saw a good turnout of voters in the morning itself, who wanted to escape the scorching sun. The poll percentage kept on increasing since morning. The percentage, which was around 55 per cent at 1 p.m., went up to 78 per cent at 5 p.m. with one more hour to spare. The same trend was witnessed in the outlying regions of Puducherry such as Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam.
Chief Minister N. Rangasamy cast his vote at a booth at Thilasupet and Union Minister V. Narayanasamy at Bussy Street.
However, the poll boycott of Veerampattinam and Chinna Veerampattinam, which housed more than 7000 persons, mostly fishermen, turned out to be a major point in the Parliament elections. Two factions of people were involved in a minor tussle there. On Thursday morning, a group of people from the village staged a road roko demanding protection when they went to cast their vote.
The villages pointed out that they had boycotted the elections as both Mr. Rangasamy and Mr. Narayanasamy failed to take necessary steps to construct tsunami houses for a majority of the affected families even after 10 years of the tragedy.
On Thursday, however, this situation changed and while a large majority of the village abstained from voting, around 1500 people exercised their franchise after a lot of persuasion by election and police officials. Towards the end of voting, another tussle started in the area that was also controlled by the police.
There was a report that supporters of the AINRC and the Congress clashed at Lawspet. However, it was resolved soon with police intervention. Similarly, polling was delayed for a while in at least three booths owing to a malfunctioning of Electronic Voting Machines.
The Union Territory recorded a vote percentage of 82.15 with 81.51 per cent of the men voting, 82.74 per cent of the women and 85 per cent of the transgender population voting.
The maximum voting percentage was recorded in the rural Assembly segment of Oussudu, where almost 90 per cent of the people exercised their franchise, while the minimum percentage was in the enclave of Mahe, where only 70.15 people voted.
The turnout is higher than the last elections in 2009 where the UT recorded 79.85 per cent.
