Though there was no major incidents of violence or disruption of poll proceedings here on Thursday, District President of the Welfare Party of India (WPI) A. Ibrahim, alleged that he was attacked by a few All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) cadre at Nanjundapuram Itteri and the Coimbatore unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the AIADMK cadre of malpractices during the by-poll for the mayoral by-election.
Mr. Ibrahim, who is also one of the 16 candidates contesting the by poll here, told The Hindu that the incident took place when he went to a booth in ward number 95 based on information that AIADMK cadre were casting bogus votes in a couple of booths. On reaching the spot, the candidate said they caught a man who tried to vote in the place of another voter.
“We handed him over to the police there and also informed the officials on election duty, over phone. We waited there for about 15 minutes but the officials did not turn up. Instead AIADMK cadre came there in large number and attacked us (me and my cadres),” he alleged.
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He submitted petitions on the alleged attacks to the District Collector, the Returning Officer and to the City Police Commissioner.
Condemning the attacks, the candidate, the District Secretary of Aam Aadmi Party S. Mohamed Rafi and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi District Secretary Susi Kalaiarasan staged a demonstration at the Collectorate in the afternoon and sought cancellation of election in the above said booths.
City Police Commissioner A.K. Viswanathan said that the person who was suspected for casting a bogus vote was not from the district and was only standing on the premises.
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The police warned him and asked him to go out of the premises. On the alleged attack, he said that an inquiry has been ordered.
In another incident, BJP cadres alleged that an AIADMK cadre attempted to cast bogus vote at Sri A Ramasamy Matriculation and Higher Secondary School in Kavundampalayam. The BJP cadres handed him over to the Thudiyalur Police.
BJP’s mayoral candidate R. Nandha Kumar, who came to cast his vote at Thudiyalur, said that his party cadre also spotted nearly seven AIADMK party men who were canvassing votes within 100 metres of a polling booth at a Panchayat Union Middle School in Thudiyalur though it is prohibited under the election norms.
The BJP cadre picked up argument with the AIADMK party men following which the police intervened and evicted the ruling party cadre.
There were a couple of similar incidents in the city and the Police Commissioner said that so far there had not been complaint from the presiding officers.
Corporation officials distributed booth slips to the voters at the polling stations to those who had not received it.
A booth official said that there were a few cases in which the name of the person was not found on the rolls. This was probably due to a change in their polling booth since the last Mayor election.