TN polling time extended by one hour, 25K extra booths assigned

According to Public Election Department sources, the State will likely have single phase polls between April 18 to April 28 and model code of conduct is expected by next month. The Commission also informed officials to be prepared to hold by-elections for the Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha seat along with the TN Assembly polls. 

An additional 25,000 booths will be assigned and corona protocols will be in place in all the 93,000 booths. Admitting that majority of the political parties have urged for single-phase election, Arora also said that a few parties do not want the elections to be held during festivals. “We will consider all the factors and counting across TN will take place the same day,” he said. To control cash inducement to voters, the ECI will deploy additional observers. Apart from the normal election observers, the Commission has decided to send two special expenditure observers for poll-bound states. 

Earlier in the day, the CEC met Chief Secretary Rajeev Ranjan and senior police officers to review poll arrangement plans. Election guidelines for poll officials, corona guidelines for polling states and short films on election awareness were also released.