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The Election Commission is all set to release the exact number of persons who have exercised their franchise in the Tamil Nadu Assembly election, on Saturday. The voter turnout figures will include details of gender divisions: male, female and transgender. The single-phase elections to the 234-seat Tamil Nadu Assembly were held on April 23, and the counting of votes will be held on May 4. In addition, the ECI authorities here will be inspecting all the strong rooms where the EVMs and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) units are kept. A senior ECI official here said that the 85.15 per cent voter turnout figures, released on the date of polling, are not final and they are based on data received from a subset of polling stations. He said the actual number of votes polled at each polling station is formally recorded in Form 17C, which will be cross-verified with the data in the ECI headquarters. The poll authorities have begun scrutinising the total number of voters since Frida
West Bengal registered a record voter turnout of nearly 92 per cent in the first phase of assembly polls on Thursday amid sporadic incidents of violence, while Tamil Nadu recorded unprecedented voting of over 84 per cent as the BJP pushed to unseat Mamata Banerjee in Bengal and expand in the South. In the first phase, 152 constituencies in West Bengal went to polls,while voting for the 234-member Tamil Nadu assembly was held in one go. The elections are taking place against the backdrop of a massive political row over the SIR of the electoral rolls, a major flashpoint between the BJP and opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress (TMC). In West Bengal, the BJP is eyeing to wrest power fromBanerjee-led TMC, which seeks a fourth straight term in a state the saffron partyhas never governed, and in Tamil Nadu, key contenders are the ruling DMK and main opposition AIADMK, while actor-politician Vijay-led TVK and Tamil nationalist Seeman-led NTK are putting up a determined ...
The high-intensity poll campaign for the April 23 election to the Tamil Nadu Assembly will end at the close of the day on Tuesday, bringing the mandatory silent period. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, and former Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal besides Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi Palaniswami, and Deputy CM son Udhayanidhi crisscrossed the state holding roadshows and campaigning for the AIADMK-led NDA and DMK-led SPA candidates in fray from 234 assembly constituencies. Though issues like development, central fund allocation, family rule, and corruption allegations dominated the nearly month-long electrifying campaign, apart from mutual personal attacks, the countdown to the election date saw the delimitation exercise assuming the centre stage. Two powerful alliances - the Secular Progressive Alliance
Around 18 per cent of the candidates in fray in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections have declared criminal cases against themselves, while 25 percent have assets worth more than Rs one crore, a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said on Monday. According to the report, out of the 3992 candidates analysed, 722(18 per cent) candidates have declared criminal cases against themselves. Of these, 404 (10 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases. In the 2021 Assembly elections, out of 3559 candidates analysed, 466 (13 per cent) had declared criminal cases against themselves, and 207 (6 per cent) had declared serious criminal cases against themselves. Among the major parties, 118 (69 per cent) out of 170 candidates analysed from the AIADMK, 92 (40 per cent) out of 231 candidates from the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, 70 (40 per cent) out of 175 candidates analysed from the DMK, 16 (48 per cent) out of 33 from the BJP, 14 (50 per cent) out of 28 candidates analysed from t
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday burnt a copy of the delimitation bill and dubbed it a "black law" and alleged it seeks to make the Tamil people "refugees" in their own land. Stalin hoisted a black flag and burnt a copy of the bill on delimitation circulated by the union government and raised slogans condemning the move, hours before the Parliament was to sit for a special session. The CM burnt the copy of the bill at Namakkal in western Tamil Nadu where he is camping in connection with electioneering. "Poradavom, Velvom ondraga" (Let us struggle, win together) was among the slogans raised by Stalin and others clad in black. In a statement, Stalin said: "Let the flames of resistance spread across Tamil Nadu. Let the arrogance of the fascist BJP be brought down. Then, the fire of resistance against Hindi imposition that rose from Tamil Nadu scorched Delhi. It quietened only after Delhi was forced to yield." He was apparently referring to the anti-Hindi agitation in t