Polling begins on peaceful note

Amid tight security, polling for the by-election to the Tamil Assembly from Tirumangalam constituency began on a peaceful note with about 15 pc of the total 1.55 lakh electorate exercising their votes.

Amid tight security, polling for the by-election to the Tamil Assembly from Tirumangalam constituency began on a peaceful note with about 15 per cent of the total 1.55 lakh electorate exercising their votes by 10AM, officials said.

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They said eight companies of Central Paramilitary force and 3000 state police personnel had been deployed in the sprawling constituency to prevent any untoward incidents.

Long queues of voters could be seen in both the town as well as mofussil area polling booths of the constituency when polling began at 8.00 am.

The IG South Zone Sanjeev Kumar had already warned that stern action would be taken against those trying to create trouble and violence would not be tolerated.

Every three Polling stations were being observed by an additional observer. Micro observers had also been pressed into service to monitor polling in 190 polling booths, the officials said.

The polling began at 8AM.The central government staff were supervising the polling booths. The access to polling booths would be limited to specified areas even for the officials and the pressmen, officials said.

The constituency is witnessing a three-cornered contest between DMK's Latha Athiyaman, AIADMK's M Muthuramalingam and actor-politician Vijaykant's DMDK nominee T Danapandiyan. MDMK, whose sitting member Veera Elavarasan's death caused the by-poll, has given the seat to its ally, the AIADMK.