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 started at 8 a.m. in 5 centres in these districts.
Strong rooms had been opened in the presence of candidates or their authorised representatives.
Postal ballots are being counted first, adopted by the votes recorded in the digital voting machines (EVMs). The counting of EVM votes will start solely after the completion of the postal poll rounds.
Prominent candidates in the area embody 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 entire 21 Assembly seats in these 4 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 companions are additionally in the fray: VCK (Arakkonam), Congress (Sholinghur), IUML (Vaniyambadi), and DMDK (Polur).
The AIADMK and its alliance companions are contesting in a majority of constituencies in the area: BJP (Tiruvannamalai), PMK (Sholihgur, Polur), AMMK (Tirupattur), and TMC(M) (Ranipet).
As many as 16 tables have been organized in every constituency for each spherical of counting.
Four-tier safety preparations, with greater than 4,000 police personnel, together with Central forces, have been deployed in and across the counting centres.
— D. Madhavan
