Kudos to Election Commission for the successful conduct of the polls in 38 Lok Sabha constituencies and 18 Assembly seats in Tamilnadu without any hiccups.
Nearly 70 per cent of the 5.84 crore electorate exercised their franchise as the polling ended on a peaceful note on Thursday evening. Due credits should be given to Chief Election Commissioner Satyabrata Sahoo for all efforts to ensure all ends well.
But for stary incidents in interior Tamilnadu, the elections were by and large smoothly-conducted.
The police too deserve praise for ensuring peace. Though there were rampant allegations of cash for votes in Tamilnadu by major political parties, the raids and seizure of cash in the past few weeks by flying squads of the EC made sure the officials were on their toes. There were allegations of names missing out from the voters list and EC was blamed by a section of media.
Though it cannot be denied that they could have taken the help of technology to overcome the issue, yet the public too should be blamed equally for not taking efforts to verify the electoral list which was out well in advance. For poor turnout of voters especially in constituencies like South Chennai and Kanyakumari, blame it on individuals.
The EC had come out with awareness campaigns urging for 100 per cent votes. When rural areas saw a huge turnout, sadly those places where the literates live in large numbers saw poor response. A sense of social responsibility is lacking among them. This has been the trend in Bengaluru too where the final poll per cent is less than 50. Time to rethink strategies to lure voters to booths.