75 % voting in Sankarankoil bypoll, counting on Wednesday

SANKARANKOIL: Amid unprecedented security, the by-election for the Sankarankoil Assembly Constituency went off peacefully with an estimated 75 per cent electorate exercising their franchise at the end of the polling, on Sunday evening. Polling remained incidentfree due to the stringent actions taken by the Election Commission of India (EC) by deploying six companies of Central paramilitary forces in addition to 3000 State policemen. Web cameras were installed in all the 242 polling booths to monitor the polling process. Polling was held in a transparent, free and fair manner. People enthusiastically turned up in large numbers even at the beginning of the polling to decide the electoral fortune of 13candidates including those of S Muthuselvi of ruling AIADMK, J Jawahar Suryakumar of DMK, Dr T Sadan Thirumalai Kumar of MDMK,K Muthukumar of DMDK and L Murugan of BJP. Interestingly, there was no ‘boycott’ by any village residents unlike in previous elections. Firebrand MDMK General Secretary Vaiko cast his vote at the Government Higher Secondary School booth in his native Kalingapatti Village which falls under the Sankarankoil Assembly Constituency. The reserved seat, considered as AIADMK’s stronghold for the past two decades fell vacant, following the death of Minister C Karuppasamy on October 22, last year. This is the second by election since the May 2011 Tamil Nadu State Assembly Election with the fi rst one taking place in Tiruchirapalli West assembly to fi ll the vacancy caused by the death of Mariam Pichai in an accident within days of being sworn-in as Minister in Jaya regime. AIADMK won the by-election to Tiruchirapalli West.