Campaigning ends for second phase of rural body polls in TN

The State Election Commission (SEC) said that 76.19 per cent turnout was registered during the first phase on Friday.

Candidates made a last ditch effort to woo the voters by taking up door-to-door campaigning.

In the second phase, polling would be held in 158 panchayat unions to elect 255 ward members of district panchayats, 2,544 members of panchayat unions and 38,916 panchayat members.

Polling would be held in 25,008 polling booths.

Every voter has to cast four votes in the polls. They would be voting to elect Panchayat Ward Members, Gram Panchayat President, Panchayat Union Ward Members and District Panchayat Union Ward Members.

Meanwhile, the SEC has ordered re-polling in 13 booths of the 15th ward in Viralimalai Panchayat Union on Monday after the symbol of a candidate was wrongly printed during the first phase polling.

The candidate, Sekar, approached the Pudukkottai district election officer stating that screw symbol was printed with his name instead of the spanner symbol allotted to him.

Similarly, re-polling has been announced to the 21st ward in Uthangarai in Krishnagiri district as the symbol of the Independent candidate was wrongly printed.

Meanwhile, cases had been filed against 50 people for vandalising poll booths in Tiruvallur district.