Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 18 (ANI): In what will undoubtedly be one of the focus states going into polling for the opening phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Friday, a total of 6.23 crore registered voters will exercise their franchise at 68,321 polling stations across Tamil Nadu, the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sathyabrata Sahoo informed media persons on Thursday.
The state was firmly in the spotlight during the campaign phase for the first phase of polling, with BJP state president and the party’s Coimbatore candidate K Annamalai leading the battle for a South surge. However, the BJP’s bid for a major southern ingress faces a tough challenge in the form of Dravidian heavyweights Kanimozhi, Dayanidhi Maran and 2G-scam accused A Raja, among others.
At 3.17 crore, there are more registered female voters in the state this time, while the number of male voters has been pegged at 3 crore. The third gender will account for another 8,467 voters in the state going into the opening phase of polling for the Lok Sabha.
A total of 950 candidates across parties are bidding for membership of the Lower House of the Parliament this time. However, contrary to women voters outnumbering the men, there are only 76 women in fray for the opening phase, against 874 men.
Addressing a press conference ahead of polling for the electorally crucial southern state, CEO Sahoo said 190 companies of Central Armed Police Forces have been deployed for election duty while 15 more companies of central forces will stand guard outside the storage room.
As many as 8,050 polling stations in the state have been designated as critical while 181 have been marked as vulnerable.
The state poll panel chief added that till April 17, the Election Commission (EC) has seized cash totalling 178.35 crore, liquor worth 6.67 crore, and electoral freebies worth another Rs 37.5 crore.
A total of 44,801 polling stations will be equipped with direct web-casting as polling gets underway on Friday, the CEO informed, adding that the entire polling process will be monitored by EC.
Polling in 65 per cent of the polling stations will be monitored by way of web-casting, SEO Sahoo added.
Through cVIGIL app, 4861 complaints from across the state were received by the commission, of which 22 are pending redressal, the state poll panel chief added.
Introduced by the EC this year, the cVIGIL app allows citizens to report violations of the Model Code of Conduct going into the elections. cVIGIL stands for ‘Vigilant Citizen’, letting them play a proactive role in the free and fair conduct of the elections.
The state braces for a three-cornered contest involving the DMK, the ruling party in the state, the principal Opposition AIADMK, and the BJP, which is seen as a resurgent force going into the elections.
The DMK frontlines the INDIA bloc in the state, also comprising the Congress, Left parties, IUML, VCK, actor-politician Kamal Haasan’s MNM, Vaiko’s MDMK, and the Gounder community-based KMDK.
The AIADMK, which severed ties with the BJP-led NDA earlier, is leading an alliance of minor parties, including the DMDK, Puthiya Tamilagam (PT) and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).
In the 2019 elections, the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance swept the South state, winning 38 of the 39 seats.
All 39 seats in Tamil Nadu will vote in a single phase on April 19 and the counting of votes will be held on June 4. (ANI)
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