Puducherry recorded 81.70% polling in Assembly election

The Union Territory of Puducherry registered 81.70 per cent polling in the Assembly elections held on April 6 for all the 30 segments, according to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO). Puducherry has 23 constituencies, Karaikal 5 and Mahe and Yanam having one seat each.

Of the total 10,04,197 voters in the whole Union Territory, 8,20,446 exercised their franchise marking 81.70 per cent polling.

Yanam region having one segment registered the highest percentage of 91.28. Founder of the AINRC and former Chief Minister N Rangasamy, heading the NDA here, contested from Yanam.

All along, Malladi Krishna Rao was getting returned to the Assembly from Yanam without a break since 1996. This time, he abstained from contesting and extended support to Rangasamy. Rao was the Congress leader in Yanam.

He quit the post of Health Minister in the previous Ministry headed by V Narayanasamy.

Rao also quit the MLA post in February intensifying the crisis for the Narayanasamy-led government. Rangasamy contested the Thattanchavady seat too and the segment recorded a 75.09 percentage of polling.

Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister V Narayanasamy abstained from the poll battle as he wanted to coordinate poll-related works in the party. The counting of votes is slated for May 2.