R ARIVANANTHAM
CHENNAI, JAN 1
The ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has cautioned its cadres to be alert at the counting stations, as the opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) may indulge in mischief during the counting which will take place on Thursday.
In a letter to party cadres, the party Coordinator and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and Cocordinator and Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami have urged the party functionaries to be cautious at the counting stations. The DMK will try to do mischief at the time of counting and the party workers should be careful when the votes are counted.
District secretaries and party chief polling agents should report to the counting station by 6 am and ensure that there is no foul play at the counting stations, the letter said.
Except the recently carved out nine districts, the rural local bodies in 27 districts of Tamil Nadu have witnessed elections. TNSEC will fill the 91,975 local body posts. Ballot voting system was followed in gram panchayat elections. Four types of coloured ballot papers were used. A total of 49,688 polling booths were set up.
The votes will be counted on Thursday (January 2) and the results will be announced the same day. As per the poll schedule winners will assume office on January 6 and the indirect elections to president posts will be held on January 11 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
TNSEC preparing to conduct elections for urban local bodies in January
Meanwhile, the TNSEC is likely to commence the work for the polls in urban local bodies by January. The state has 121 municipalities and 15 municipal corporations. Eight corporations will soon have women mayors and 61 municipalities will have women chairpersons to head the local bodies.
Municipalities reserved for Tribal Women, SC Women
Most of the municipal areas with reserve forests as boundaries have been reserved for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes.
Gudalur in The Nilgiris district has been reserved for ST (women) while Valparai, Udhagamandalam, Coonor, Sankarankoil, Peranampet, Ranipet, Sirkazhi, Thiruthuraipoondi and Perambalur municipalities have been reserved for SC (women).
Repolling in 9 booths today
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) on Tuesday ordered repolling in nine polling booths spread over Cuddalore, Thoothukudi, Nagapattinam, Theni and Madurai districts, where alleged electoral malpractices were reported.
Repolling in these booths commenced at 7 am today. Ballot boxes will be moved to the strong room tonight and the counting of votes will be taken up on Thursday.
