234 votes cast in 2 hours at Secretariat

According to Chief Electoral Officer, Tamil Nadu, Rajesh Lakhoni, the ballot box was sealed at 5 pm and taken to Delhi by a 9.10 pm flight. Assistant Returning Officer (Secretary in charge of TN Assembly), K Boopathy took the ballot box to Delhi along with Joint Secretary Subramanian, he told reporters. 

Chief Minister K Palaniswami was the first to cast his vote at 10 am, AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) legislator and former Minister S Semmalai was the last to exercise his franchise by 11.56 am. 

After Palaniswami, his cabinet colleagues including Forest Minister Dindigul C Srinivasan, and School Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan, rebel AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam, his loyalist and former Minister K Pandiarajan cast their votes. 

Following them, Leader of the Opposition and DMK Working President M K Stalin, Congress Legislature Party Leader K R Ramsamy, IUML MLA KM Mohammed Abubacker and all others voted. 

Out of the 234 MLAs in TN Assembly, RK Nagar seat is vacant and Karunanidhi was not scheduled to vote and the rest of 232 legislators voted. Besides them, Pon Radhakrishnan, representing Kanniyakumari Lok Sabha constituency and Parikkal Abdullah from Kerala voted here taking the total number of voters here to 234. 

Radhakrishnan, authorised election representative (agent) of NDA candidate Ramnath Kovind, was present through the voting process. Semmalai and Assembly Deputy Speaker Pollachi V Jayaraman were also the authorised representatives of Kovind. 

For opposition candidate Meira Kumar, Congress MLA S Vijayadharani and DMK Whip R Sakkarapani were the authorised representatives. Meanwhile, at the neighbouring Puducherry all 30 elected legislators who are members of the Electoral College exercised their franchise.