By IANS,
Chennai : The by-polls to five Tamil Nadu assembly seats Tuesday will be recorded on a web camera, a poll panel official said Monday.
Speaking to IANS the state’s Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta said: “Trial run for recording of the polling process live is over. We have trained the polling officials on recording the polling process with a web camera and a final round of training to some officials is being given Monday.”
The state election panel chief will be able to monitor the poll progress sitting in his office here.
By-elections are being held in Bargur, Thondamuthur, Cumbum, Illayangudi and Srivaikundam constituencies for which campaigning came to an end Sunday.
With the AIADMK, the PMK and the MDMK boycotting the polls on the grounds the elections will not be free and fair, the fight is between the ruling the DMK-Congress combine on one side and the DMDK, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M )on the opposite side.
Polling officials have also been given mobile phones to send SMS on the polling status every two hours till 3 p.m., after that every half an hour till 4 p.m. and then every 15 minutes.
Gupta declined to comment whether the poll boycott by some parties added more pressure on the Election Commission.
He said nine companies of State Armed Police (SAP) would be deployed in the five constituencies.
“As they are central forces, we don’t expect rowdy elements to create problem and disrupt the peaceful polling process.”
He said the electronic voting machines (EVM) will be closed by the presiding officer in the presence of polling agents immediately after polling.
Though AIADMK, PMK and MDMK have boycotted the polls DMK-Congress combine did not take it easy and they had asked their district secretaries to go for gold.
DMK’s organising secretary for southern Tamil Nadu Districts and union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers M.K. Alagiri has announced a prize of 25 sovereign gold chains to the district secretary who gets the party candidates the highest votes.
Alagiri had said the chain will be presented from his own funds.
A similar award was announced by Congress leader Thankabalu for his party district secretaries.
DMDK promoted by actor-turned-politician Vijaykant is hoping to cash in on the votes of AIADMK cadres. The party posters had both M.G. Ramachandran, founder of AIADMK, and Vijaykanth’s pictures.
Similarly the DMK party cadres are targeting the votes of AIADMK sympathisers and cadres even though the latter has asked its supporters not to cast their votes.
The ruling party wants to increase the percentage of votes polled to show that people in large numbers are not in favour of AIADMK’s poll boycott call and its cadres are approaching every household in all the five constituencies to ensure that people would vote.