Erode East constituency sees brisk and peaceful polling

ERODE: Polling for the byelection in the Erode East assembly constituency was brisk and peaceful on Monday. The constituency recorded 70.58% voter turnout till 5pm. Polling was from 7am to 6pm. Officials issued tokens to voters who were in queues at 6pm. They were allowed to vote.
There were long queues in front of the polling booths right from 7am when the voting started.In some booths, voters had to wait for more than an hour to cast their votes. Those who cast their votes in the morning include Congress candidate E V K S Elangovan, AIADMK candidate K S Thennarasu, NTK candidate Menaka Navaneethan and DMDK candidate S Anand. The byelection was necessitated by the death of Elangovan’s son and Congress MLA E Thirumahan Everaa on January 4. As many as 77 candidates including independents were in the fray.
Elangovan said he would win with a huge margin and his rivals would suffer “unprecedented loss”.
"Chief minister M K Stalin's good regime in the last 20 months and Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yathra will bring a historic victory to me," he said.
Thennarasu said he would win with a 25,000 vote margin. "There may be some issues going on about the 'ink' that was marked on the voter's index fingers. My party high command will lodge the complaint with the ECI," he said.
The NTK candidate Menaka said the election arrangements made by the officials looked satisfactory while DMDK candidate Anand said he had seen a huge number of young and fresh voters queuing up in front of the booths to cast their votes.
The constituency has 2.27 lakh voters as per the electoral list. The Erode Municipal Corporation (EMC) set up 238 polling booths. The ECI used 1,430 electronic voting machines (EVMs), 310 VV pads and 286 control units for the byelection. CCTV cameras were installed in all the booths.
More than 2,500 police personnel from Salem, Erode, Tirupur and Coimbatore districts were involved in the election duty along with the 693 paramilitary personnel.
Returning officer R Sivakumar said the EVMs, VV pads and the control units were sent to IRTT Engineering College in Chithode. "CCTV cameras have been installed inside and outside the strong room," he said. Three-tier gunman protection would be given for the strong room, he added.