Date:19/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/19/stories/2008091959710300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Corporation byelections by and large peaceful

Deepa H Ramakrishnan

Tension prevailed at a few booths when people could not find their names in the voters’ list

— Photo: R.Ragu.

In queue: Women waiting to cast their votes in the Corporation by-elections held for ward 44 in Chennai on Thursday.

CHENNAI: Barring a few minor incidents, byelections to the post of Chennai Corporation councillors in two wards in north Chennai — ward 18 (Royapuram) and ward 44 (Perumal Koil Thottam) — passed off in a smooth manner on Thursday. Though there were no episodes of violence, tension prevailed at a few booths when people could not find their names in the voters’ list.

There were also minor skirmishes between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) cadres. Police personnel, who had been posted in large numbers, stepped in to pacify them.

A resident of ward 18 G. Deenadayalan, who had a valid voter’s ID, said he was not allowed to cast his vote because his name was missing from the voters’ list. “Some booth officials told me that my name had been deleted because I was dead!”

In ward 18, AIADMK cadres staged a demonstration in front of the Royapuram police station accusing the DMK of casting bogus votes and also against police inaction for allegedly remaining mute spectators.

AIADMK MLA P.K.Sekar Babu alleged that High Court orders regarding not allowing outsiders within 200 metres of the polling booths, insistence of identity cards and complete videography were not followed.

DMK North Chennai District Secretary L. Balaraman, who refuted the AIADMK’s allegations, said that elections were conducted in a smooth manner. “The DMK cadres did not make any mistake. When the AIADMK felt that they had lesser votes, they resorted to road roko,” he alleged.

A senior Corporation official said that barring a few minor incidents, election went on peacefully. Steps had been taken for the smooth conduct of polls. IAS officers had been deployed in both the wards and the voting had been videographed completely and heavy police security had been provided, he added.

Abhay Kumar Singh, Joint Commissioner of Police (north zone), said election was held peacefully and was incident free.

There were no clashes anywhere, he added.

Regarding names that were missing from the electoral rolls, Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni said an intense revision of rolls was going on and nearly two lakh application forms had been issued.

Once this revision is completed, the problem of missing names would not arise.

At the end of the polling at 5 p.m., a total of 5,469 votes were polled in ward 18 and 5,372 votes in ward 44. Counting of votes would be held on Saturday.