LS polls: 23 per cent turnout till noon in Pondy

Puducherry recorded 23 per cent voting till noon in polling Thursday for the lone Lok Sabha, which is witnessing a battle between the ruling Congress and opposition AINRC.

Twenty-five per cent polling was registered till noon for the vacant Thattanchavady Assembly seat, election officials said.

The main battle for the Parliamentary seat from the Union Territory is between the ruling Congress' candidate V Vaithilingam, a former assembly speaker and opposition AINRC nominee K Narayanasamy.

There are 18 contestants in the fray, including two women candidates.

The AINRC candidate is a doctor-turned-politician while actor-politician Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam has nominated former AIADMK legislator M A S Subramanian from the seat.

The Assembly seat fell vacant after AINRC legislator Ashok Anand was disqualified following his conviction in a disproportionate assets case by a special CBI court in October last year.

Puducherry and its outlying regions of Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam together constitute the lone Lok Sabha seat and have a total strength of 9,73,410 voters.

They include 31,905 first time voters in the age group of 18 to 19 years, Chief Electoral Officer V Candavelou said in a release.

Polling will go on till 6 pm in what is the second phase of the Parliamentary elections.

Of the total 970 polling stations spread across the union territory, 222 have been identified as vulnerable and 25 polling stations have been identified as critical, he said.

The DMK is aiming to wrest the Thattanchavady Assembly seat from the AINRC and has fielded an K Venkatesan, an oil merchant. The AINRC nominee is P Neduncheziane.