Salem district registered 75.33 % polling in the Assembly elections on Tuesday. There was brisk polling in the early hours with the young and the elderly queuing up to cast their votes.
As many as 4,280 polling booths were set up across 11 Assembly constituencies, including the additional booths in view of COVID-19 pandemic. Long queues were seen in the early hours of the polling, as people wanted to cast their votes before the day turned hot.
Assembly Speaker P. Dhanapal voted at a booth in Gugai in Salem city. Chief Minister Edappadi.K. Palaniswami, who is contesting from Edappadi constituency, voted along with family members at a booth in Siluvampalayam. Mr. Palaniswami brought his grandson along while casting his vote. Talking to presspersons, Mr. Palaniswami appealed to the public to fulfil their democratic responsibility by voting.
Salem Corporation Commissioner N. Ravichandran voted at a booth near Ramakrishna Road. District Collector S.A. Raman inspected polling booths at various places and the functioning of live webcasting facilities.
Following glitches in the electronic voting machine, polling could not begin at 7 a.m at a booth in Salem West constituency. An elderly voter in the constituency complained that his name was wrongly mentioned in the voters list and, therefore, could not cast his vote.
Volunteers provided masks, gloves and sanitisers to voters at polling booths. Wheel chairs were also provided for the elderly and differently-abled persons.
The Salem City Police monitoried six Assembly constituencies that had 1,446 polling booths, including 111 vulnerable booths at 74 locations. A total of 2,419 personnel, comprising the city police, Central police forces, ex-servicemen, Telangana police trainees and Karnataka Home Guards were deployed. In Salem rural limits, which had 2,834 polling booths, around 4,500 personnel were deployed.
