Srirangam byelection: Voting progressing at moderate pace

SRIRANGAM: The polling for the Srirangam assembly byelection in Tamil Nadu progressed at a moderate pace on Friday. The Election Commission said 34.3% polling was cast in 322 booths till 11am after polling began at 7am.

Polling was delayed in a few booths due to defects in the electronic voting machines (EVM). The EVM in a booth at Olaiyur failed to function when polling began. The election officials rectified the problem in 45 minutes.

Polling was disrupted twice in a booth in ward No 1 at Melur -- from 8.10am to 8.50 am and again from 9 am to 09.10am. The defective EVM was replaced with another one and polling resumed.

Voting had been delayed in a booth in Thiruvalarcholai area for half an hour. A machine at a booth in Teppakulam Street stopped to function at 10am, but started to work shortly.

There 29 candidates are in the fray in the byelection. S Valaramathi of the AIADMK, N Anand of the DMK, M Subramaniam of the BJP and K Annadurai of the CPM are the main competitors.

The constituency fell vacant after AIADMK chief and former chief minister J Jayalalithaa was disqualified as an MLA when a special court in Bangalore convicted her in a disproportionate assets case on September 27 last year.

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