Prominent candidates in Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur, and Tiruvannamalai districts
The counting of votes polled in the 21 Assembly constituencies in Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur, and Tiruvannamalai districts began at 8 a.m. in five centres in these districts.
Strong rooms were opened in the presence of candidates or their authorised representatives.
Postal ballots are being counted first, followed by the votes recorded in the electronic voting machines (EVMs). The counting of EVM votes will begin only after the completion of the postal ballot rounds.
Prominent candidates in the region include senior Ministers Duraimurugan (Katpadi), E.V. Velu (Tiruvannamalai), R. Gandhi (Ranipet), Deputy Speaker of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, K. Pitchandi (Kilpennathur), and former AIADMK Ministers K.C. Veeramani (Jolarpet) and S.S. ‘Agri’ Krishnamoorthy (Kalasapakkam).
Of the total 21 Assembly seats in these four districts, the DMK is contesting in 17 constituencies. Some of them are: Jolarpet, Ambur, Arcot, Cheyyar, Vandavasi, Arani, Chengam, Gudiyatham, Vellore, and Anaicut. The Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) alliance partners are also in the fray: VCK (Arakkonam), Congress (Sholinghur), IUML (Vaniyambadi), and DMDK (Polur).
The AIADMK and its alliance partners are contesting in a majority of constituencies in the region: BJP (Tiruvannamalai), PMK (Sholihgur, Polur), AMMK (Tirupattur), and TMC(M) (Ranipet).
As many as 16 tables have been arranged in each constituency for every round of counting.
Four-tier security arrangements, with more than 4,000 police personnel, including Central forces, have been deployed in and around the counting centres.
— D. Madhavan
