Chatterjee, Chidambaram, Karunanidhi among early voters

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa were some of the early voters in the final phase of polling today. Chatterjee cast his vote in Kolkata, his first after being expelled from the CPI(M) last year, while Chidambaram exercised his franchise at a polling station in his home town Sivaganga.

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa were some of the early voters in the fifth and final phase of Lok Sabha elections on Wednesday.

HT Image

Chatterjee cast his vote in Kolkata, his first after being expelled from the CPI(M) last year, while Chidambaram exercised his franchise at a polling station in his home town Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu.

"People will vote for the programmes and schemes implemented by the UPA Government in the past five years," Chidamabaram, who is contesting for an eighth term from Sivaganga, told reporters after exercising his democratic right.

Karunanidhi, who was brought to the polling station in a wheel chair, cast his ballot at a school near his Gopalapuram residence, while Jayalalithaa voted at the Stella Maris College which falls under Central Madras constituency.

CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat who voted in Kolkata said she was exercising her franchise for an alternative secular government at the Centre.

"I am standing here to vote for an alternative pro-people secular government at the Centre. That's what I am looking for," she said.