Local body elections, which decide the fate of urban development and other issues related to civic amenities, was more of a mixed bag in Madurai district as many wards in the city saw a dull voter turnout in the first phase of polling on Monday.
As against the Assembly Elections held four months ago, the local body polls lacked the vigour both in terms of efforts and interest of political parties, besides the poor voter turnout. However, the first phase was incident free but for some minor skirmishes. A few wards in the city which were considered politically sensitive saw brisk polling.
Polling stations at Avaniapuram High School saw a large number of voters turning up early; it almost wore a festive look. The Panchayat Union Middle School polling station at Avaniapuram also saw a good number of voters. One could see serpentine queues at St. Mary's Higher Secondary School and East Gate by 8.30 a.m., and surprisingly it was mostly women who turned up early in the day. There was a bit of confusion among voters as they complained that they were not given voter slips at Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Mahaboobpalayam, with seven polling stations.
Since election to ward no.15 of Madurai Corporation has been countermanded following the death of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate, S.P. Jayamani (60), the polling stations at Holy Cross School in Arapalayam saw a low turnout.
One of the interesting things to note was that K. Pudur which became the hotspot for political campaign during this poll as it saw Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, Congress leader G. K. Vasan and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi chief Thol. Thirumavalavan kick off their campaign, however, witnessed dull polling. The RC Middle School at K. Pudur which had booths covering Burma Refugees' Colony and Manmalaisami Street witnessed a very poor turnout.
Upscale neighbourhoods of Anna Nagar and KK Nagar recorded low percentage of polling. At Ambika College in Anna Nagar, the polling booths were almost empty at 4.30 p.m.
The booths there recorded close to 50 per cent polling. In Meenakshi Sundareswarar Higher Secondary School, Teppakulam, it was close to 60 per cent. One of the EVMs in the booth in the college had a technical snag owing to which voting was held up for 40 minutes.
At EVR Nagammai Corporation Higher Secondary School, tension prevailed when people gathered outside the school following rumours that the number of votes recorded in one of the EVMs was found to be not tallying with the booth slip count.
Earlier in the day, Collector U. Sagayam visited Balamandiram School with five booths. There was a technical glitch in one of the EVMs there but it was rectified within 15 minutes. The Collector covered a maximum number of polling stations in the city and rural areas.
Alanganallur town panchayat had brisk polling at around 1 p.m. in the polling stations at Government Girls Higher Secondary School. The four booths there saw almost 75 per cent polling. The wooden planks that were put up as ramp to help the elderly and differently-abled served little purpose as none had railings attached to them.
There was a minor skirmish between supporters of two candidates at Tirumalpuram Primary School coming under the Chettikulam panchayat near Oomachikulam but police intervened quickly to defuse the situation.
