Tamil Nadu: Two groups clash during vote counting in local body polls
Amid the local body elections counting in Thirumangalam, a fight broke out between two groups. The Police personnel brought the situation under control.
- India News
- 3 min read
Amid the local body elections counting in Madurai's Thirumangalam, a fight broke out between two groups on Thursday. The local body elections were held in Tamil Nadu in two phases- on December 27 and December 30. The first phase of polling was held on December 27, 2019, for 1,546 posts in Ramanathapuram, Thirupullani, Mandapam, RS Mangalam, and Thiruvadanai, while the second phase of the elections was held on December 30, 2019, for 2,144 seats in the areas of Paramakudi, Bogalur, Nainargovil, Mudukulathur, Kamudi, and Kadaladi.
However, the Police personnel present at the counting centre brought the situation under control. A massive voter turnout of the local body elections was recorded in Madurai was recorded with 78.32 per cent of people coming to vote. The first phase of the rural local body elections in the Madurai district saw a voter turnout of 77.06 per cent, while the second phase saw a turnout of 79.45 per cent on Thursday.
Overall, more than 8,46,000 people in the Madurai district exercised their voting right in the local body polls. The process of counting of votes for the two-phased local body elections began on 8 AM.
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Sanitary worker gets elected as a village panchayat president
Several from the humble backgrounds were successful, including Saraswathi, a former sanitary worker who was elected as a village panchayat president from Virudhunagar district.
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Also, in districts including Ramanathapuram a number of elderly women -of age ranging between 70-80- were elected to civic posts and these were allocated to women. Polls to rural civic bodies were held on Dec 27 (first phase) and 30 (second phase) in Tamil Nadu. The direct elections were to elect 91,975 civic posts in rural bodies falling under in 27 districts. Of the over 90,000 posts, 76,746 were village panchayat ward member posts and 9,624 village panchayat president positions.
Also, polls were held for 5,090 panchayat union ward member posts and 515 district panchayat ward member (also referred to as councillors) positions. Among such thousands of civic posts, as many as 18,570 were elected unopposed. The counting of votes were being held by deploying about 1,00,000 officials in 315 centres spread across 27 districts amid tight security provided by 30,354 police personnel.
The State Election Commission, referring to the use of paper ballots in polls, said the completion of counting of votes in all the districts may happen by Friday.
(With Agency Inputs)