With Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in the fray in the by-election to Dr.Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly Constituency, a large number of electors turned up on Saturday.
By late evening, election officials declared a poll percentage of 75, higher than the previous turnout of 65 during the Lok Sabha elections in the R.K. Nagar segment. Polling was largely peaceful.
Disruption to polls was reported only in booth no.116 in Tondiarpet due to some damage caused inadvertently to an EVM by a voter.
“Engineers rectified the problem in 20 minutes,” said an official.
A number of polling stations reported serpentine queues even after 5 p.m. Polling ended only at 6.20 p.m. because of long queues in some stations.
Reportedly enthused by the aura of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, electors in many AIADMK strongholds in the constituency thronged the polling stations as early as 7 a.m. Police had to intervene to regulate the crowd in polling booths such as Royapram Government Children’s Home.
In the previous elections in R.K. Nagar, the turnout was 65 per cent with 1.52 lakh of electors casting their vote.
