The first phase of voting attracted a large number of voters. The first hour recorded around ten percent of polling early in the morning.
Voters arrived at the polling stations enthusiastically as early as 6.30 AM and waited for their turn to vote, with personnel of the state and central police forces standing guard.
As many as 190 companies of Central Armed Police Forces have been deployed. Some polling stations like Kattuppalli (Tiruvallur) however wore a deserted look.
Voting was delayed by an hour in some polling booths, such as the one near Tambaram coming under Sriperumbudur Lok Sabha segment, due to technical glitches in the electronic voting machines and officials said they were attending to it.
Several voters who lined up the queues said they preferred to cast their votes early in the morning to avoid the ‘scorching sun,’ later in the day.
In total, 3,32,233 polling personnel have been deployed and 1.3 lakh police personnel are on poll duty. The fate of 950 candidates will be decided by about 6.23 crore voters who are set to exercise their franchise in 68,321 polling stations.
