Over 6.28 crore voters are gearing up to exercise their franchise in an epic election, voting for which began at 7 am.
The election, that will choose the new generation leaders of Tamil Nadu, is being held under the cloud of allegations of rampant use of money by political parties to buy votes.
People queued up outside polling stations even before voting began at 7 am. Tamil actors Ajith and Shalini are some of the prominent people who voted early in the morning.
Voting will end at 7 pm.
More than 1.58 lakh personnel, including those from police and paramilitary, have been deployed to ensure peaceful elections in the state.
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the number of poll booths has been increased to 88,937 from the previous figure of around 67,000. Poll officials said the maximum number of voters in a booth is 1,000 voters.
The election to elect the 16th assembly is unique in more ways than one as this is the first state poll without the presence of stalwarts M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa. While the DMK alliance has projected M K Stalin as the Chief Ministerial face, the AIADMK made incumbent Edappadi K Palaniswami its nominee for the top post this election.
While the number of female voters eligible to vote is 3.19 crore, the number of male voters stands at 3.09 crore. As many as 7,192 people from the third gender will also be eligible to vote.
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