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Rae Bareli, TN, WB, Pondy go to polls Chennai/Pondicherry, Kolkata/Rae Bareli: Brisk voting was witnessed in the polls held today in Assembly Election for the States of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and the Union Territory of Pondicherry. The Lok Sabha by-polls for the Rae Bareli constituency, however, saw low turnout with around 45 percent votes being registered, three percent below the last Lok Sabha elections. In Tamil Nadu, an estimated 65 percent voters exercised their franchises for the 234 Assembly constituencies. While in West Bengal, which went to polls in the fifth and final phase of the voting today, about 73 percent voting was recorded in 49 Assembly constituencies of the State. In the 27 Assembly seats of Pondicherry, about 81 percent voting was recorded. The election passed on by and large peacefully with one report of clash between Congress and Forward Bloc workers in front of a booth in Jaigao in Goalpukhar constituency in North Dinajpur, where Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi's wife, Deepa, is the contesting as the Congress candidate. In Tamil Nadu also polling was practically incident free and peaceful. In Andipatti from where Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa is seeking re-election, the DMK candidate T Seeman was allegedly attacked by AIADMK men. Polling in Pondicherry and Karaikal also remained peaceful barring some minor violent incidents In Rae Bareli, some miscreants shot at a Samajwadi Party worker, Vijayshanker Vajpayee, near a polling station in Amrawa, police said. Counting in the states and the Union Territory will take place on May 11. Jayalalithaa mum, Karunanidhi confident Chennai/ New Delhi: The incumbent Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and AIADMK supreme, J. Jayalalithaa, today preferred to keep silent on the results of the Assembly election in the State, saying she would "talk about only after the results are out". However, her bitter archrival and DMK leader M. Karunanidhi expressed confidence of coming to power and said: "I am confident that that DMK is forming the next Government in Tamil Nadu". The mood of the DMK leader is in resonance with the different exit poll results conducted by various news channels which have given DMK led Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) a thumbing clear victory in the polls. The three private news channels -- Times Now, Star News and CNN- IBN-- have given DMK led DPA around 60 percent of the 234 Assembly seats of the State. In all these exit polls, the much talked about Tamil cinestar Vijay Kanth's Dravida Murpokku Desiya Kazhagam (DMDK) is believed to cut no ice among the voters of the State. The six party pre-poll alliance of DPA is being led by DMK with Indian National Congress, PMK, CPI (M), CPI and Indian Union Muslim League as its other members. If the results, as predicted by the different exit polls, turns true, it would be a great setback for the AIADMK-led Democratic People's Front, as their leaders were optimistic of overcoming anti-incumbency factor in the State. In 2001 Assembly elections, AIADMK had swept the polls by winning 196 of the 234 assembly segments. The 2006 election campaigning saw a rush of freebies promised by the leaders from rice at two rupees per kilo to home delivered free rice. From free mobile phones to free computers were all promised by different parties. However, whether freebies really mattered to the voters while voting could be gauged only after the results come out when counting will be done on May 11. |
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