Chennai, Apr 23 (PTI) Tamil Nadu witnessed a record voter turnout of over 85 per cent on Thursday during elections to 234 Assembly constituencies in a three-cornered electoral battle involving the ruling DMK, AIADMK and new entrant, actor-politician Joseph C Vijay-led TVK.
Polling passed off peacefully without any major incidents.
The turnout was a record 85.05 per cent with the ruling DMK, which put up a big fight over delimitation to target the AIADMK-BJP’s NDA, fighting hard to retain power. The main opposition AIADMK, that cornered the incumbent regime over a slew of issues including burgeoning debt burden and alleged law and order deterioration, slogged to wrest power.
The fledgling TVK led by charismatic actor-politician Vijay and Tamil nationalist Seeman’s over 15-year old NTK are pretty serious players in the electoral arena.
Both DMK and AIADMK exuded confidence of winning.
Responding to the new voter turnout, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said: “Highest-ever percentage of polling in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu since independence. The ECI salutes each voter of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.” Election officials indicated that the numbers were still being consolidated and that the final voting percentage might increase.
Though the turnout is considered historic, ruling DMK sources said the polling should reach between 88 and 90 per cent to be tagged as “unprecedented or historic” polling.
Every Assembly election since 2001 has seen an increase of at least 30 lakh votes, sources claimed.
At 6 PM, when voting ended, 85.05 per cent of the 5.73 crore eligible voters, which was approximately 4.87 crore, exercised their franchise.
Karur recorded the highest turnout of 91.86 per cent and the lowest was 75.50 per cent in Kanyakumari.
Prior to the 2026 elections, the 2011 polls witnessed 78.29 per cent, the highest in TN poll history. Late J Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK trounced archrival DMK in the hustings then.
In 2021 Assembly polls, the turnout was 73.63 per cent and 4.59 crore electors had voted. In 2021, about 6.29 crore was the registered number of voters.
The 4.82 crore votes polled on April 23 for the 2026 Assembly election is approximately 23 lakh more than what was witnessed in 2021.
DMK President and Chief Minister MK Stalin said “Tamil Nadu will win”, adding, people’s vote upholding the highest values of Constitution such as democracy, secularism, states’ rights and social Justice was a shield to protect Tamil Nadu.
AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami exuded confidence that his party would return to power.
On the historic turnout, BJP’s Narayanan Thirupathy said that the full credit goes to EC’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
“Hats off to the Election Commission of India. We have seen in Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Puducherry and now in Tamil Nadu. So, full credit to them,” Thirupathy told PTI Videos.
DMK spokesperson A Saravanan said: “Going by established historical trends, the party expects the total number of votes polled in this cycle to reach approximately five crore.
Following the completion of the SIR of electoral rolls the electorate was 5.37 crore strong, ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls.
Among the highest voting percentage was also the 76.57 per cent recorded in 1967.
Despite the scorching sun, people turned up enthusiastically in polling stations right from 7 AM onwards and cast their votes and those who had gathered before 6 PM, the appointed time for closure of polling, were allowed to vote.
While there were no major untoward incidents, boycott of the voting process was witnessed in different places over various issues.
Voters linked to Vengaivayal village in Pudukottai district boycotted polling over the incident of faeces being mixed in an overhead water tank a few years ago. They demanded justice over the incident.
At Perumpathu village in Nanguneri constituency in southern Tamil Nadu, not a single person allegedly voted for several hours to mark their protest against a double murder case.
Further, villagers near Ettayapuram in Thoothukudi district boycotted the election and their polling station Kulathuvoypatti union primary school under the Vilathikulam Assembly constituency wore a deserted look as only five votes were cast out of the total 983. Their boycott was due to a local dispute over using a pathway.
In Madurai, booth agents clashed at Keezhavasal. At Kalasapakkam in Tiruvannamalai, an agent of an independent candidate allegedly broke a control unit and it was replaced. Tension prevailed at a polling booth under Arisipalayam, Salem city, during voting in view of a sudden clash between booth agents of the AIADMK and DMK.
BJP leaders K Annamalai and Vanathi Srinivasan accused the DMK of money distribution while party candidate from Mylapore in Chennai, Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan accused the ruling party of trying to influence voters by open display of its Rising Sun symbol.
As polling started, the who’s who of Tamil Nadu politics and tinsel town inked their fingers.
CM Stalin, his son and deputy CM Udhayanidhi, Palaniswami, Congress senior leader P Chidambaram, Union Minister L Murugan, actor-politicians Kamal Haasan and Vijay, ‘superstar’ Rajinikanth and a number of others cast their votes early in the morning.
The election also turned out to be a kaleidoscope of tidbits, tense moments and curiosity.
Incidents like AIADMK leader and former Minister Dindigul C Srinivasan reportedly pressing the ‘red light’ on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) instead of the button to cast vote amused people. Later, the polling official pointed to the button and he cast his vote.
In Coimbatore, Vellore and Dharmapuri districts, ‘Robo Tina,’ dressed like a cute little girl welcomed voters to the polling station and gave flowers and chocolates to the people.
At Namakkal, a “super elderly” woman, Mariaayi, reportedly 110 years old, cast her vote. Speaking to reporters, she said she had seen so many leaders including DMK founder CN Annadurai and AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran in her life.
Several persons with disabilities and health issues were brought in wheel chairs to the polling stations.
Election Commission arranged three boats to help villagers off the Pechiparai dam falling under the Padmanabhapuram Constituency in Kanyakumari district to reach the polling station to cast their votes.
At Tirupattur, a TVK supporter allegedly filmed himself pressing the button in EVM favouring Vijay’s party and released it in the social media. He was arrested by police. Newly married couples visited polling stations in their traditional wedding attire in several towns/ cities including Chennai, Kanchipuram, Namakkal and Krishnagiri and cast their votes.
Polled votes will be taken up for counting on May 4. PTI JR SNR JSP VGN KH ROH ADB VGN SA
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