Polling in the first phase of rural local body elections in western Tamil Nadu was largely peaceful.
Coimbatore District Election Officer and Collector K. Rajamani said polling was peaceful as the Coimbatore Rural Police recorded no untoward incident.
In Tiruppur district, voting at a polling station in Palani Gounden Valasu at Nallampalayam village panchayat in Dharapuram panchayat union was halted for about 30 minutes after voters complained that a rubber stamp used on the ballot paper was faulty. A DMK functionary was questioned by the Dharapuram police after he was spotted wearing a shawl resembling the party flag. Some DMK members argued that shawls and dhotis bearing party flag do not amount to violation, after which they were let off.
School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan cast his vote at the polling station in Kullampalayam, in Erode district.
In Karavalli near Omalur in Salem district, polling was suspended for about two hours after the government seal was found imprinted in about 63 voting slips. Following protest by DMK and other parties, voting slip books were changed and new sealed voting slip books were brought in for voting.
In Namakkal, a communist cadre wearing a black scarf over his eyes, without a shirt, tried to exercise his franchise at a polling booth in Kabilarmalai and police personnel opposed this. After a heated argument, the police later allowed him to cast his vote. In Thiruchengode, voting was stopped for about an hour at two polling booths in A. Kailasapalayam, after Congress candidate Jaganathan alleged his party symbol was less visible. Senior election officers visited the booth and polling was resumed after assuring the candidate that additional lighting would be set up at the booths.
In the Nilgiris, brisk voting was seen throughout the day in Coonoor and Kotagiri panchayat unions, with 51.37% of voters turning out to vote, till 5 p.m.
The second phase of polling for Gudalur and Udhagamandalam panchayat unions will be held on Monday.
In Pavakkal panchayat of Uthangarai union in Krishnagiri, two male relatives of a union council candidate doused themselves in kerosene, threatening self-immolation over the printing of a wrong symbol. The candidate was allocated “Manja pai” (yellow cloth bag), while the printed symbol was a “hand-bag”. Following this, candidate Lalitha Maharajan’s male relatives threatened self-immolation. The men were removed by the police and taken to the police station.
Later, officials assuaged the candidate and polling continued in Pavakkal panchayat union elementary school.
(With inputs from Karthik Madhavan and R. Akileish in Coimbatore; Rohan Premkumar in Udhagamandalam; S.P. Saravanan in Erode; Vignesh Vijayakumar in Salem and Srividya P.V. in Krishnagiri)
