The initial trends suggest that the DMK and the AIADMK are in close race and the voting trend in the initial rounds could, by noon, indicate which party would form the next government in the State. Sundar Subbaiah says AIADMK's K. Kalanithi is leading in Virudhunagar AC by 1495 after first round and our Tirupur Correspondent Vimal says AIADMK candidate Vijayakumar is leading in Tirupur North constituency by 87 votes.
Meanwhile the counting of votes polled in Chengalpattu Constituency was delayed as the key of the strong room was reportedly missing! Hence, counting of votes was delayed by 45 minutes as the officials opened the strong room using the duplicate key at around 8:40 a.m, while the Returning Officer, Panneerselvam in consultation with the political party representatives has decided to break open the lock.
There are 14 counting tables for each Assembly segment and the votes polled in a EVM would be counted after the micro observer has tallied the votes. The counted votes would be updated by a data operator after another observer gives a go ahead to it. Candidates and their agents would be taken into confidence before going ahead with next step.
DMK has targeted the younger generation, the DMK manifesto has promised waiver of education loans, tablets or laptops bundled with 3G/4G internet connection and 10GB per month download option for 16 Lakhs students and smart phones for poor families.
