Heavy polling recorded in Salem, Namakkal districts

Proud voters:Women waiting to vote at Edapadi town in Salem district. 

Salem/Namakkal:

          While Salem registered a staggering 81.24 percent polling, a record of sorts since the 1957 elections, in the Assembly polls on Wednesday, Namakkal district did one better to post 82 percent.

         Of the 11 segments in Salem, seven registered above 80 percent while the rest recorded above 70 percent. Veerapandi registered a whopping 89.01 percent of polling at the close followed by 

Sankagiri (in percentage) - 85.98 , 

Edapadi 85.41, 

Omalur 83.36, 

Yercaud ST 83.23, G

engavalli Reserve 81.6, 

Attur Reserve 80.76, 

Salem South 78.71, 

Salem West 78.06, 

Mettur 75.06 and 

Salem North 74.40 percent.

          The polling at Taramangalam and Sankagiri towns falling under Sankagiri Assembly and Edapadi town in Edapadi saw good response from the voters since this morning. Within an hour, 15 percent of polling was recorded in various booths in the 11 segments of the district while it jumped to 35 per cent at noon.

 The first three hours of polling saw Omalur Assembly record 44 per cent followed by Salem South with 42 percent.

        At 3 pm, Yercaud ST posted the highest with 70 per cent followed by Edapadi 67, Salem South 63, Attur Reserve 61 and Omalur 60. Sankagiri, where Agriculture Minister Veerapandi S Arumugam, contested, Veerapandi, where his son A Rajendiran was DMK candidate and Mettur from where PMK president G K Mani sought re-election, all recorded 59 percent.

             But the pace of polling picked up soon after with many segments crossing the 70 percent mark. Yercaud registered a whopping 78.7 per cent followed by Veerapandi (78), Edapadi (72.7), Sankagiri (70.2 per cent) and Omalur (70) for a total percentage of 67.21.

The following was the percentage of votes recorded in the six Assembly segments in Namakkal district by close of polling at 5 p.m:

Rasipuram (SC) 81, 

Senthamangalam (ST) 81, 

Namakkal 82, 

Paramathi-Velur 80, 

Tiruchengode 82, and

Kumarapalayam 86.

         By the end of the day, the district's most inaccessible booths at Kelur and Kedamalai villages in Rasipuram Assembly segment had registered 76.6 and 75 per cent, respectively. Election officials said that close to 20 per cent of the polling was registered in the last two hours.

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PMK, AIADMK ready to face off in Edapadi, Omalur

SALEM: 

         Two senior functionaries of Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) A Karthe and N Tamilarasu will be facing AIADMK rivals at Edapadi and Omalur Assembly segments, respectively, in Salem district.

         The PMK had denied a seat to its sitting MLA Kavery whose performance, according to the party, was lacklustre and instead, preferred Karthe, a deputy general secretary and former MLA. This Vanniyar-dominated Edapadi segment assumes significance since the delimitation exercise had hived off Taramangalam Assembly segment, held by the PMK. Karthe, a graduate in Political Science, has his ancestral roots in Edapadi though he stays in Salem city. But he is facing the tag of ‘outsider' in the Constituency, which has a sizeable rural population besides the weavers in Jalakandapuram and Ilampillai. “With the overwhelming support of the allies such as DMK, I can easily romp home,” he told The Hindu while campaigning in a village.

            He seeks votes on the basis of freebies and welfare schemes offered by the ruing alliance. He also warns that these will be discontinued if the AIADMK front came to power. He also assures weavers uninterrupted power supply and points out that if DMK is voted to power, the free supply of power will be increased from 200 to 500 units. The AIADMK's Salem west district secretary Palanisamy has been fielded again here causing widespread disenchantment among the rank and file of the cadre here.

         Palanisamy has been their candidate since 1989, seeing victories and defeats in various elections. The people are also critical for his non-performance since no major development scheme has been brought to the segment so far. But still, he banks on his leader's charisma and the people's wish for a change.

          Omalur is the other constituency where the PMK and AIADMK would be crossing swords. The PMK's deputy general secretary N Tamilarasu, seeking re-election is facing the AIADMK's Krishnan who lost the last polls by a thin margin of 3,663 votes. The DMDK as a single entity polled 12,384 votes, which Krishnan believes would see him through this time. Tamilrasu is banking solely on the party's alliance with the ruling front.

           Though it was he who spearheaded an uprising against Agriculture Minister Veerapandi S Arumugam before a patch-up was thrashed out, DMK cadre in tandem with VCK, have been working wholeheartedly for his success. “I have personally attended to the problems of the people of my Constituency,” he claims. However, he faces an uphill task against the AIADMK candidate who has no adverse remarks against him. The constituency has a majority of Vanniyars followed by Dalits and other caste groups. A rain-fed area, the segment comprises mainly labourers who migrate to Bangalore and other cities to earn their livelihood.

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