Amid poll boycotts and issues of name deletion from the electoral roll, Tamil Nadu registered 69.46% polling in the Lok Sabha elections on Friday, April 19. Coimbatore, one of the key battlegrounds in the state, saw a voter turnout of only 64.81%. According to the Election Commission data, this is the lowest voter turnout in the state since 2009.
The district with the highest voter turnout was Dharmapuri with 81.48%, followed by Kallakurichi (79.25%) and Salem (78.13%). The constituencies in Chennai saw the lowest voter turnout with Chennai Central at 53.91%, followed by Chennai South with 54.27%. Thoothukudi saw a voter turnout of 59.96%.
The overall voter turnout has been the lowest in the state for Lok Sabha polls since 2009. In 2009, the overall voter turnout was 73.02%, 73.74% in 2014, and 72.47% in 2019. Several voters across the constituencies in Chennai discovered that their names had been deleted from the electoral roll and could not cast their votes. Some of them told TNM earlier that they had been voting in that constituency for several years, but their names were deleted this year.
K Annamalai, Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief and MP candidate from Coimbatore, alleged that at least 800 voter names were also deleted from the electoral rolls in the city.
Read: Chennai voters irked as many names found deleted from electoral rolls
Tamil Nadu’s key political contenders are the INDIA bloc consisting of parties like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the Congress, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), CPI(M), among others. Meanwhile, the key opposition party, the All India Anna Dravid Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), contested the polls severing its ties with the BJP. The results for the Lok Sabha polls will be declared on June 4 by the Election Commission.
Read: Tamil Nadu: Full list of villages that boycotted Lok Sabha polls