Congress candidate V. Vaithilingam campaigning in Puducherry.
| Photo Credit: S.S. KUMAR
Campaign for the April 19 Lok Sabha polls in Puducherry came to a close at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
The hectic campaign launched by main political players for the lone seat during last week of March reached its crescendo on Wednesday morning with candidates and their supporters coming out in large numbers for a final public outreach to gather as many votes.
Chief Minister and AINRC founder N. Rangasamy, who is leading the campaign for BJP candidate A. Namassivayam, toured Kadirgamam and Indira Nagar Assembly segments. He started his campaign in a semi-open van along with Mr Namassiavayam from the Mettupalayam signal and wound up the public campaign at Kadirgamam.
His immediate electoral rival, Congress party’s V. Vaithilingam held campaign rallies in Ouppalam, Raj Bhavan and Villianur Assembly segments. He was accompanied by former Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy and leaders of alliance parties, including Opposition leader and DMK convenor R. Siva.
The AIADMK which has fielded G. Thamizhvendhan belonging to the fishermen community held bike rallies on the last day of the campaign in the town and suburban areas.. Taking a break from the hectic campaign, AIADMK secretary A. Anbalagan along with Mr Thamizhvendhan held a protest inside the District Collectorate against alleged distribution of money to voters by BJP and Congress.
The other candidates in the fray are R. Menaga (Naam Tamilar Katchi), Alangarvelu (Bahujan Samaj Party), P. Sankaran (Socialist Unity Centre of India-Communist), K. Prabhudevan (United Republican Party of India), and 19 Independents.
Polling will be held from 7 a.m to 6 p.m across all 967 polling booths in the four regions of the Union Territory. The UT has 10, 23, 699 voters, which includes 4, 80, 569 men, 5, 42, 979 women and 151 third gender voters. Arrangements have been made by the department to provide drinking water and chairs to the voters at the polling booth.
While voting slips have been made available to the electorate, the department has advised voters to produce EPIC or any of the documents accepted as identity proof to be able to cast votes.