November 19 poll campaign ends on high note

While a by-election will be held for Tiruparankundram seat in Madurai district, which was necessitated following the death of ruling AIADMK MLA Seenivel, Aravakurichi and Thanjavur will have regular election. Elections to Aravakurichi and Thanjavur were earlier scheduled along with the rest of the state on May 16, but they were cancelled by the Election Commission following complaints of large scale bribing of voters. There were 39 candidates in fray for Aravakurichi, 14 in Thanjavur and 28 for the Tiruparankundram seat. There would be a five cornered contest in Thanjavur and Aravakurichi, while it would be battle between four candidates in Tiruparankudrdam. Political parties campaigned for more than 15 days in the Tiruparankundram seat finished their rally on a high note.  DMK candidate Saravanan and BJP candidate Srinivasan carried out campaign at Avaniyapuram in Tirupparakundram. 

Though actor turned politician Khushbu was expected to campaign for DMK she was not present and another actor took the charge. DMDK leader Premalatha, during her campaign, asked the Tirupparakundram voters to weed out corrupt parties and claimed that let Tirupparakundram constituency mark the change. She said “both parties are dependent on money to win but we are dependent on people.” However, there was no big crowd for Premalatha in the rural areas where she visited.  Earlier in the noon, a special meeting of Zonal officers and policemen were conducted at the Collectorate and it was followed by police randomisation process. 

In the randomisation process two policemen and two CRPF men were assigned for duty for a single zone.  According to the arrangement a lorry full of EVMs would be sent to a single zone which would be accompanied by a jeep for security. One CRPF jawan would travel in the lorry and another jawan in the jeep. The jeep will have two policemen and a Revenue staff.

District administration announced that liquor shops would remain closed for three days, from Thursday to Saturday, till the completion of election. Similarly, the liquor shops would be closed on November 22, the day of counting of votes.

On the last day of campaigning Thanjavur and Aravakurichi witnessed high voltage election rallies on Thursday for the November 19 polls.

In Aravakkurichi, former Minister V Senthil Balaji (AIADMK) and K C Palanisamy (DMK) and in Thanjavur, Anjugham Boopathy (DMK) and M Rengasamy (AIADMK) were among the candidates.  Apart from the two main parties, the DMDK, led by actor Vijaykant and BJP have also fielded their candidates. The PMK too had entered the fray in the two seats. DMK Treasurer and Opposition leader MK Stalin who commenced the last day campaign from Murugan Street at around 7 am concluded the campaign at Old bus stand in Thanjavur. He told the voters in the concluding address that the demonetisation has affected the farmers a lot. 

Expressing satisfaction on his campaign tour, he said “Thanjavur is like home for me and we are optimistic about the results.” Meanwhile, in Aravakurichi, a group of cine personalities including actress Vindhya, Senthil and Vyapuri went round the entire constituency and spoke about the developments brought by the AIADMK government. Vindhya commented that the DMK candidate KCP (K C Palanisamy) as JCB for his involvement in the sand mining in the entire district. She urged the voters to favour the AIADMK candidate V Senthil Balaji to bring development to the segment. In the meantime, the people from outside who have been camping in the segment were asked to leave the constituency as the campaign trail got over. Similarly, campaign in social media has also been banned.