Most booths did not provide the facilities promised to disabled

CHENNAI: After a campaign marred by voter bribing, polling for the 38 Lok Sabha seats and 18 assembly segments in Tamil Nadu went off largely incident-free on Thursday, though there were reports of minor glitches with EVM machines across the state and sporadic incidents of violence in Ariyalur, Vellore and Kanyakumari districts.Chennai, as usual, trailed the rest of the state in polling, recording less than 60% against the state average of 70.9%. Puducherry registered 80.5% polling for the lone Lok Sabha seat. Tamil Nadu had recorded 73.74% polling in 2014 and 73.05% polling in 2009. Puducherry had registered 82.10% polling in 2014 and 79.81% in 2009.Chief electoral officer Satyabrata Sahoo said 71.62% polling was recorded in the 18 assembly segments. Harur assembly segment, with 86.96%, recorded the maximum turnout.Five BJP cadres were seriously injured in a clash with AMMK cadres at Arumanallur in Kanyakumari district. The clash initially erupted at a booth in Veeravanallur government higher secondary school when polling was under way. Police dispersed them. Later in the evening, AMMK cadres attacked BJP men with weapons.At Ambur, AMMK candidate R Balasubramani was injured and his car’s windshield broken in stone throwing, allegedly by AIADMK workers. In Ariyalur, PMK cadres attacked dalits and damaged 20 houses. At Keezhvisharam village near Arcot in Arakkonam constituency, police opened fire in the air to disperse a group that thronged a polling booth at the end of polling. None was injured. In unrelated incidents, five elderly voters died either after casting votes or on the way to polling booths in various districts. Votes for LS seats will be counted on May 23.Voting started at 7am and ended by 6.30pm in most places. In Madurai, voting was extended till 8pm owing to Madurai Meenakshiamman temple festival.Minor glitches in EVMs and VVPATs delayed polling in many places where voters had turned up in large numbers early morning to beat the summer heat. Complaints of polling officials turning away voters without booth slips were reported from many places. As complaints grew, Sahoo instructed officials to permit voters without booth slips to cast votes.There were complaints of voters’ names missing from electoral rolls at several places. In Kanyakumari district, fishermen protested as scores of names were missing from the list.Despite all claims made by the CEO, most booths did not provide facilities promised for the differently-abled, senior citizens and women voters. Around 2pm, DMK’s legal wing called on Sahoo and expressed apprehension about the AIADMK planning to capture polling booths in the evening. The party also petitioned DGP Ashutosh Shukla.The DGP in an official release said the elections were by and large peaceful, except for minor untoward incidents in Gudiyatham, Kallakurichi, Chengam town and Ariyalur.Nearly 1.4 lakh police personnel and 160 companies of central armed police forces were deployed in 67,720 polling stations to maintain law and order.Though campaign ended on Tuesday evening, all parties were active on social media, wooing voters on Thursday. Hashtags #My-VoteForDMK, #VoteForAIADMKAlliance and #TNVotes4Modi were trending through the day.