Chennai: The first phase of the rural local body elections to 14,662 posts in nine newly-formed districts started on Wednesday. The fight between DMK, AIADMK, PMK, NTK and several other parties, including in between allies, started at 7 am on Wednesday and is expected to continue till 6 pm. The last hour of the polling has been reserved to COVID-19 patients who can exercise their democratic right with a PPE kit.
According to a live report on ABP Nadu, the voters are set to cast their votes in 7,921 polling booths set across nine districts. The polling is expected to be monitored through web cameras and police forces have been stationed to monitor the voting. The polling officials have been entrusted with the verification and voting process along with putting COVID-19 norms in place.
The nine new districts facing elections are Chengalpattu, Kallakurichi, Kancheepuram, Ranipet, Tenkasi, Tirunelveli, Tirupattur, Villupuram and Vellore.
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Further, voting has been stalled in Ulloor of Kancheepuram district since the name of one of the candidates has been wrongly printed on the EVM. The name of an independent candidate Lakshmi contesting in the ladder symbol has been mistakenly mentioned as Dhanalakshmi.
In another case, the people of Ammuni village in Katpadi have boycotted the election since the seat has been reserved for a SC candidate. Similarly, a report in The New Indian Express said that Ponnankuppam village of Gingee taluk boycotted the voting due to a demand for a seperate panchayat.
Meanwhile, the counting for the seats will be held on October 12.
(With inputs from ABP Nadu — It is a Tamil platform of ABP News. For more news, commentary and latest happenings from Tamil Nadu, follow https://tamil.abplive.com/).