The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Trailing travails

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 12, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Trailing travails

For a few candidates of the fronts led by the rival Dravidian parties, the narrow margin coupled with fluctuating margin at the end of each round of counting provided tense moments almost throughout the counting process.

In the absence of any comfortable margin for any candidate, every time the officials made any preparatory measure to announce the results of the respective round through public address system, both the rival nominees of at least three constituencies were visibly gripped by anxiety and tension.

The AIADMK nominee for Varahur (Res), M. Chandrakasi, for instance, underwent the maximum ordeal as the margin between him and his rival PMK nominee, Gopi, kept him tense. Although he fell behind in the initial three rounds, he could pick up during the fourth only to fall behind in the sixth round. As the lady luck would have it, he could march with a very thin margin in the next six rounds. After the counting of ballot papers, which took some time was over, he heaved a sigh of relief.

Seconds after receiving the certificate of election from the Returning Officer, he volunteered to rush up to each and every polling officer, shook hands as a token of gratitude. And, by no means, also as a mark of fair conduct of elections, which ended up in his favour.

in Tiruchi

From M. Balaganessin in Tiruchi

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