By IANS,
Chennai : All necessary steps will be taken to hold a peaceful by-poll to the Sankarankoil assembly constituency March 18, poll officials said Saturday.
Speaking to reporters here, chief electoral Officer Praveen Kumar said: “Tight security arrangements would be made for peaceful conduct of the polls. There will be around 240 polling stations and the poll process would be videographed and webcast.”
Making it clear that the government cannot announce any new schemes for the Tirunelveli and Tuticorin districts which the Sankarankoil constituency straddles, Kumar said 75 percent polling was recorded here in last year’s assembly elections and a similar percentage of voting is expected this time as well.
The by-poll is crucial as it is the first election after the AIADMK parted with its assembly election allies like DMDK, two communist parties and others as well as the first after the government jacked up the bus fares and milk prices.
The constituency has over 200,000 voters.
The by-poll was necessitated as sitting member, C. Karuppasamy of AIADMK, died in October due to ill health.
The AIADMK has fielded V. Muthuselvi while DMK has pitted J. Jawahar Suryakumar against her.
MDMK which boycotted the assembly polls last year has announced that it would field its candidate for the by-poll.