The polling booth housed at Tribal Residential School in Shenbagathoppu had the lowest number of voters.
It had only 62 voters in the rolls. By 5 p.m., 52 voters had cast their votes. However, the five polling officials, two staff distributing single-use gloves, and a couple of police personnel were still waiting for the rest of the voters.
The booth is located in the foothills of Western Ghats where 30 families were residing in Justice Bhagavathi Nagar. Since, it is located 10 km away from Srivilliputtur, the officials had met their demand to set up a separate booth.
Three women officials, including the Presiding Officer, had travelled to the school the previous night. “Since there was no rest room in the school, the officials had made arrangement for the women staff in a neighbouring house,” said an official.
The voters trickled in one by one since 7 a.m. “Since, our men and women go to the forest area to collect herbs and honey early in the morning, they came one by one,” said the leader of the tribal community, P. Gopal.
By the end of polling, 55 voters had cast their votes, an official said.
