PELL-MELL: Torn ballot papers lie scattered in front of a booth (ward no. 35) at a school in Vyasarpadi, north Chennai, during the Corporation elections on Friday. Polling was marked by violence and charges of booth-capturing were many. — Phot o: B. Jothi Ramalingam PHOTO GALLERY:

CHENNAI: Large-scale violence and booth capturing vitiated the Chennai Corporation Council elections on Friday as workers of the ruling DMK and its allies clashed with cadres of the AIADMK-led Opposition in several wards.

The AIADMK moved the Madras High Court seeking to declare the polling in all 155 wards null and void. A Bench, comprising Justices S.J. Mukhopadhaya and F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla, ordered notice to the State Election Commission, the police department and the Chief Minister and DMK president, M. Karunanidhi, and posted the matter to Monday.

Complaints of bogus voting were sporadic in the morning and some wards witnessed brisk polling, but by noon several booths witnessed attacks and counter-attacks by members of the DMK-led alliance and supporters of the AIADMK. In several wards at Vyasarpadi, West Mambalam and Besant Nagar, voters who reached the booths after 11 a.m. were told by officials to leave citing "unusual circumstances."

By 1 p.m., the AIADMK took to the streets and staged road-rokos along Royapuram Main Road and Sydenhams Road at Otteri protesting against "irregularities." They threw stones at the police. Some demonstrators, including MLA P.K. Sekhar Babu, were injured when the police used batons to disperse the crowds. Several buses were damaged. Later, the protesters were arrested.

In a booth at Stella Maris College, a group of DMK workers, led by a partyman identified as Balaji, cast bogus votes, and tore up ballot papers. When the AIADMK agent protested, he was punched in the face.

Vijayakanth meets police chief

Actor and DMDK leader Vijayakanth met City Police Commissioner Letika Saran to demand a repoll deploying Central para-military forces instead of the State police. He said his party was boycotting the polls.

Ballot papers were strewn on the streets near a few polling stations at Mint and Vyasarpadi in north Chennai and Raja Annamalaipuram and Saidapet in south Chennai.

Near the Chennai Corporation Urdu School in Mint, a group of Congress volunteers led by R. Mano and another group of AIADMK men came close to blows around 11 a.m. Both groups charged each other with trying to prevent peaceful polls. The polling officials at the school said a knife-wielding gang earlier snatched the ballot papers from the booths. Some in the group carried iron and wooden rods. Journalists caught in the melee had to flee.

A gang ransacked the ballot boxes at the M.P. Devadas High School at Vyasarpadi and tore up the papers. Polling was stalled in all 13 booths of Ward 35 in the school. Election authorities said a repoll would be held.

Several residents called up The Hindu to complain that armed groups scared them away from polling booths. In a few instances, the gangs snatched ballot papers and forcibly cast the votes.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail