Saturday, Jun 01, 2002
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Tamil Nadu
By K. Manikandan
An elderly woman voter and a girl of Madhur village were beaten up allegedly by ruling partymen, following an altercation as they went to a booth to exercise their franchise. While Lakshmi (18) sustained injuries in the head and neck, Ilangili (70) sustained bleeding injuries in the face. They have been admitted to the Madurantakam Government Hospital. Tense moments prevailed in the village before the situation was brought under control by a police team comprising a DSP. At Puthirankottai, the police were kept on tenterhooks for a brief while as a truckload of men and women alighted near a booth. These people explained to the police that they were vegetable vendors and that they had come for the weekly shandy. However, the police did not permit them to open shop and dispersed them immediately. At the Marwar Government Higher Secondary School, Acharapakkam town, an unruly mob tried to barge into a booth on the pretext of finding out the total number of votes polled. Even as the police asked the crowd to leave, more people joined the gang and the policemen shooed them away from the school premises. A posse of policemen headed by a DSP was deployed at the spot and the mob was dispersed.
PMK complains
Meanwhile, the PMK leaders complained of largescale bogus voting by the ruling AIADMK men in connivance with election staff. The State president, G.K. Mani, said that shortly after voting began at Polambakkam, hometown of the AIADMK candidate, A. Poovaraghamoorthy, ruling party men took over the booth and, after intimidating and sending out agents of other candidates, indulged in bogus voting. The Chengalpattu Lok Sabha member, A.K. Moorthy of the PMK, squatted on the road along with a few partymen, blocking traffic. A senior official, who was sent to the spot twice, however reported that no incident had taken place. Mr. Mani also said calculated bogus voting had taken place in many booths in the Chithamur union and that he would ask the Election Commission to conduct re-poll in a few booths. The CPI's P.S. Ellappan said he was not allowed to enter the booth at Kovaipakkam at Sembulipuram despite rules permitting a candidate to enter any polling station. He alleged that the police were hand in glove with the ruling partymen who ``indulged in bogus voting'' at Perungaranai, Poongunam and Kayapakkam. Mr. Ellappan said the staff in the booths were guiding the voters to press the button No.3 — that of the AIADMK candidate.
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