LIVE | 2026 TN Assembly Election: 17.69% voting recorded as of 9 am; Stalin, Vijay cast votes

Veteran actor Prabhu Ganesan cast his vote along with his family in the ongoing Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.

Sivakarthikeyan cast his vote along with his wife at the Good Shepherd School polling booth in Valasaravakkam, Chennai.

Passengers bound for southern districts were the worst affected, with many unable to find buses from key terminals including Kilambakkam, Koyambedu and Madhavaram. Some even staged sit-in protests inside bus stands late at night as they struggled to secure transport.

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Actor Dhanush cast his vote at St.Xavier school, Alwarpet

R Sarathkumar and Radhika Sarathkumar cast their votes at Kottivakkam.

DMDK General Secretary Premalatha Vijayakanth cast her vote with her family Saligramam.

DMK president MK Stalin cast his vote along with his family at a Greater Chennai Corporation school polling booth on Chittaranjan Road in Teynampet

Rajinikanth cast his vote at the Stella Maris College polling booth in Chennai’s Thousand Lights constituency.

TVK chief Vijay cast his vote at a Greater Chennai Corporation school polling booth in Neelankarai.

Visit our interactive election special page to check out candidates in the fray across all 234 constituencies, past winners from each seat, and more

CLICK HERE: https://election.dailythanthi.com/

A robot welcomes voters in Coimbatore.

Voting for the Assembly election has begun, but technical issues with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) have been reported at several polling booths. Due to these malfunctions, the start of voting has been delayed in multiple centres.

AIADMK's general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami cast his vote along with his family at the polling booth in Siluvampalayam Panchayat Union Primary School in Salem.

PM Narendra Modi urged voters to ensure a record turnout. In a post on X, he appealed to all citizens to enthusiastically fulfill this sacred democratic duty. He especially called upon the youth and women of Tamil Nadu to come out in large numbers and contribute to achieving a record level of voting.

Municipal Administration Minister KN Nehru waits as VVPAT malfunctions in Tiruchy Thillai Nagar

Naam Tamilar Katchi chief coordinator Seeman cast his vote in Neelankarai along with his wife. Meanwhile, BJP State vice-president Khushbu Sundar and filmmaker-actor Sundar C also cast their votes.

Actor Ajith Kumar was the first person to cast his vote in Tamil Nadu. Considering security reasons, officials allowed him to vote early. He arrived at the polling booth dressed in a white coat suit. After voting, he showed the indelible ink mark on his finger. A large number of fans had gathered to see him, and police were deployed to control the crowd.

Over 5.73 crore voters will decide the electoral fate of 4,023 candidates in fray for the crucial Tamil Nadu Assembly election on April 23.

Both the Dravidian majors - the DMK heading the SPA and the AIADMK leading the NDA in the state are pitted against each other in the high-stakes poll contest with the DMK making a frantic bid to retain power while the AIADMK is making hectic attempts to return to power after being in the opposition for five years.

Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin has assured that he would transform Tamil Nadu into a model state in South Asia while AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami appealed to the first-generation voters not to choose the wrong person.

TVK founder Vijay, who is contesting from Perambur and Tiruchirappalli East constituencies in his electoral debut, took a swipe at Palaniswami wondering if the former Chief Minister could contest and win from any constituency outside his home district of Salem.

The DMK is facing heat from the Opposition for allegedly shelving the previous AIADMK government’s flagship ‘Thalikku Thangam’ (gold for marriage) scheme and rejecting calls for a coalition. This criticism carries weight when viewed against the party’s own history, specifically its advocacy for the gold scheme and coalition arrangements while in the Opposition during the 1980s.

Allying with the Congress, then DMK president M Karunanidhi stated that a coalition government would implement welfare schemes with Union government support. With gold prices hitting around Rs 1,000 per sovereign, the DMK proposed the 'Thalikku Thangam' scheme to provide gold or subsidies for marriages, ensuring women did not have to mortgage their thali chains.

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Returning officers across constituencies have received a high volume of nominations, reflecting the increasingly fragmented political landscape.

The shift began in 2006, when actor-turned-politician Vijayakant's DMDK entered the fray, transforming Tamil Nadu's largely bipolar contests into multi-cornered battles. In 2006, 3,902 nominations were filed, with 2,586 candidates contesting. It was a big jump from the 2001 Assembly election, when 2,829 nominations were filed, and 1,860 candidates were in the fray.

The 2016 Assembly election saw a six-cornered contest involving the DMK, AIADMK, People's Welfare Front, BJP-led NDA, PMK and Naam Tamilar Katchi, resulting in 5,901 nominations and 3,776 candidates.

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Women voters outnumber men in 214 of the 234 constituencies in Tamil Nadu, and political parties have not spared any effort to garner their support, ranging from home appliances to monthly doles – one more than the other.

However, this care and attention do not seem to extend to actual empowerment by ensuring electoral representation, as 46 seats do not have a single woman candidate in the fray.

46 constituencies have no women candidates, while 63 have only one woman candidate each. Around 60 constituencies have just two women candidates. 

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Election Commission of India (ECI) data indicates that removing duplicate, deceased and non-existent voters through SIR have resulted in improved polling percentages.

For instance, following SIR exercises in 2002 and 2005, about 8.75 lakh names were deleted from the rolls. While the electorate reduced to 4.66 crore from 4.74 crore in 2001, voter turnout saw a sharp rise. The turnout was 59.07 per cent in the 2001 Assembly election, prior to the revision, but jumped to 70.82 per cent in 2006 after the rolls were updated.

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Hitting out at actor-politician Vijay's unilateral decision-making style, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary MA Baby warned that it sends the wrong signals to the democratic process. The "Führer type" leadership style is ominous, he said, adding that it remained unclear whether crowds would translate into votes.

It's ironic that the new entrant TVK, promising political change, doesn't spell out a comprehensive political or economic agenda, he said. The CPM leader also defended the party's decision to accept a reduced share in the DMK-led alliance, saying that seat compromises were necessary to preserve unity.

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From Kolathur to Gobichettipalayam, the DT Next team visited several key constituencies ahead of the polls to understand the unique local issues that are shaping the voter sentiment and examine the voting patterns of residents over the years.

READ ALL 'CONSTITUENCY WATCH' STORIES HERE

Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K Selvaperunthagai said he was ‘pro-DMK’ and expressed confidence that Congress would win more than 25 of the 28 seats it is contesting in the Assembly elections, as part of the Secular Progressive Alliance. In an interview with DT Next, Selvaperunthagai, who is contesting again from the Sriperumbudur constituency, defended the alliance as ideological, dismissed dissent within the party, and said there was no rift between alliance leaders.

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In an interview with DT Next, DMK president and Chief Minister MK Stalin said all welfare measures promised in the DMK’s manifesto for the upcoming Assembly election, including the proposed Rs 8,000 household coupon scheme, were announced only after proper financial consultation, assuring that all schemes would be implemented once the party retains power.

READ INTERVIEW HERE