<p>Chennai: An estimated 5.73 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in Thursday’s polls to elect <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/tamil%20nadu">Tamil Nadu’s</a> 17<sup>th</sup> Assembly. The polling will be held between 7 am and 6 pm at 75,064 polling stations across 234 assembly constituencies in the state.</p><p>Of the total 5.73 crore voters, 2.89 crore are women and 2.77 crore are men, while the number of transgender persons eligible are 7,617. </p><p>Chief Electoral Officer (Tamil Nadu) Archana Patnaik said about 14.59 lakh voters have been added to the electoral rolls, along with 68,501 service electors since the completion of the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/sir">Special Intensive Revision </a>(SIR). </p>.DH Interview | Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections 2026: We won’t let systemic homogenisation erase our linguistic identity, says Kanimozhi Karunanidhi.<p>She said 4.18 lakh postal ballots have been received and that 75,064 polling stations have been set up at 33,133 locations, with a total of 1,06,418 ballot units/control units. </p><p>As many as 3.60 lakh polling personnel and 83,875 police personnel, supported by 300 companies of CRPF have been deployed for election work and security.</p><p>“A total of 5,949 polling stations have been identified as sensitive,” she said, adding that voters will not be permitted to carry mobile phones inside polling booths and that arrangements have been made outside polling stations for the safekeeping of mobile devices.</p><p>The primary question before the electorate is this: Continue to allow the DMK or AIADMK, which have ruled the state alternatively since 1967, to hold sway, or vote for the emergence of an alternative in TVK chief and popular actor C Joseph Vijay? </p><p>Tamil nationalist S Seeman’s Naam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK) is also in the fray, even as expelled AIADMK leader V K Sasikala and PMK founder S Ramadoss have fielded candidates across the state. </p>
<p>Chennai: An estimated 5.73 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in Thursday’s polls to elect <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/tamil%20nadu">Tamil Nadu’s</a> 17<sup>th</sup> Assembly. The polling will be held between 7 am and 6 pm at 75,064 polling stations across 234 assembly constituencies in the state.</p><p>Of the total 5.73 crore voters, 2.89 crore are women and 2.77 crore are men, while the number of transgender persons eligible are 7,617. </p><p>Chief Electoral Officer (Tamil Nadu) Archana Patnaik said about 14.59 lakh voters have been added to the electoral rolls, along with 68,501 service electors since the completion of the <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/sir">Special Intensive Revision </a>(SIR). </p>.DH Interview | Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections 2026: We won’t let systemic homogenisation erase our linguistic identity, says Kanimozhi Karunanidhi.<p>She said 4.18 lakh postal ballots have been received and that 75,064 polling stations have been set up at 33,133 locations, with a total of 1,06,418 ballot units/control units. </p><p>As many as 3.60 lakh polling personnel and 83,875 police personnel, supported by 300 companies of CRPF have been deployed for election work and security.</p><p>“A total of 5,949 polling stations have been identified as sensitive,” she said, adding that voters will not be permitted to carry mobile phones inside polling booths and that arrangements have been made outside polling stations for the safekeeping of mobile devices.</p><p>The primary question before the electorate is this: Continue to allow the DMK or AIADMK, which have ruled the state alternatively since 1967, to hold sway, or vote for the emergence of an alternative in TVK chief and popular actor C Joseph Vijay? </p><p>Tamil nationalist S Seeman’s Naam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK) is also in the fray, even as expelled AIADMK leader V K Sasikala and PMK founder S Ramadoss have fielded candidates across the state. </p>