T.N. gets ready to vote on April 19; polling from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The State has 68,321 polling stations for its 6.23 crore voters; 950 candidates are in fray in the 39 Lok Sabha constituencies

Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo addressed a press meet in Chennai on Thursday, April 17, 2024 | Photo Credit: SRINATH M

Polling for the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu and the bypoll to the Vilavancode Assembly constituency is set to commence at 7 a.m. on April 19, with over 3.32 lakh polling personnel deployed across the State.

Those who want to check the details of their polling stations can view them at https://electoralsearch.eci.gov.in/pollingstation. This portal will also provide details of the part and serial numbers of the voter in the electoral rolls.

Of the 68,321 polling stations across Tamil Nadu, 8,050 have been identified as ‘vulnerable’ and another 181 have been marked as ‘critical’. Webcasting of polling has been arranged at over 44,000 booths, which is about 65% of the total number of stations.

“Polling will commence at 7 a.m. and continue till 6 p.m. Those, who are in the queue will be issued tokens as of 6 p.m., and will then be allowed to vote,” Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo told reporters.

The electorate of Tamil Nadu stands at 6.23 crore, including 3.17 crore women, 3.06 crore men and 8,467 transpersons. About 10.92 lakh are in the 18-19 age group.

Of the 950 candidates in the fray in the 39 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu, 874 are men and 76 women. A total of 39 general observers, 20 police observers and 58 expenditure observers and a special expenditure observer have been deployed in T.N. by the Election Commission of India.

Security arrangements

Besides the 190 companies of central armed police force personnel positioned across the State, about 1.3 lakh police personnel, including State police, armed police and home guards sourced from Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Telangana have also been deployed.

Priority would be given for senior citizens, differently-abled persons and pregnant women so that they need not wait for a long time in the queues, as per the guidelines issued by the Election Commission, he said.

Over 1.58 lakh ballot units, over 81,000 control units and more than 86,000 VVPAT units are available in Tamil Nadu, and engineers from BEL have been deployed in case of issues in them.

The polling percentage across Tamil Nadu during the three previous Lok Sabha elections have ranged between 72%-74%. The polling percentage was 73.02% in 2009, 73.74% in 2014 and 72.47% in 2019.