Krishnagiri recorded 65.48% polling at 3 p.m in the second and the final phase of the rural local body polls here on Monday.
The polls were held for the five panchayat unions of Krishnagiri, Bargur, Shoolagiri, Vepanapalli, and Kelamangalam. Phase Il polls also included repolling in nine booths of of ward number 21 of Uthangarai union here. A repoll was ordered after the ballot sheets had misprinted symbol of one of the candidates in Phase I elections held on Friday.
Polling was smooth for large part without any of the hiccups faced during phase I.
However in Uthangarai, a former AIADMK councillor, was intercepted by the public for attempting to cast bogus vote in one of the booths, during the repolling for ward number 21 of Uthangarai panchayat union. ‘Signal’ Arumugam was caught by the public during his bid to cast a vote that belonged to a lorry driver. Arumugan was handed over to the police. Soon after, the local Uthangarai MLA from the AIADMK Manjoranjitham Nagaraj, who arrived at the spot after the incident was heckled and shooed away.
Yet, no case was registered against the councillor following an ‘inquiry”, since no official came forward to lodge a complaint.
The second phase polling came to a lukewarm start and remained that way till forenoon, before picking up speed. At the end of the first two hours of polls, the percentage of votes registered was only 11.21%, before it touched a marginal increase to 18.80% by 11 a.m.
The percentage of votes polled witnessed a steady increase after 11 a.m, touching 47.06% polling by 1 p.m. The percentage of votes polled in the five panchayat unions and the repoll booths stood at 65.48% as of 3 p.m.
