The polling day for the high profile RK Nagar bye-election is finally here.
This bye-election, for the legislative assembly seat previously held by late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, has been riddled with controversy. Following Jayalalithaa's death in December last year, bye-elections that were scheduled to take place in April were cancelled due to allegations of widespread corruption.
In November, two high profile candidatures were rejected: one of J Jayalalithaa's niece, J Deepa and another of actor Vishal.
With AIADMK and DMK in a close contest at this historic AIADMK bastion, Sasikala's nephew and Deputy General Secretary TTV Dhinakaran is contesting in the constituency as an independent candidate. These elections come in the light of a brazen notes for votes scam with political parties paying as much Rs 10, 000 per vote.
A day before the elections, the TTV camp released a video of Jayalalithaa in hospital sending shock waves across the state.
The high profile polls are also seeing heavy deployment of security personnel in and around RK Nagar. 15 companies of paramilitary personnel and about 2,000 officials would be have been deployed for the election-related activities.
Follow our live blog to track all the updates from the RK Nagar bye-elections.
(In case you are unable to see the blog, please disable ad blocker.)