Women voters outnumber men in TN

Chennai, Mar 20 (UNI) Women outnumber men in the total electorate of 463.62 lakh in Tamil Nadu, for the May 8 Assembly elections.

There are 233.78 lakh women, as against 229.84 lakh male voters.

Addressing a press meet here today, State Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta said Coimbatore district had the largest electorate size of 34.41 lakh, followed by Tiruvallur 27.34 lakh and Chennai 27.33.

He said constituency-wise report of electors in the final rolls had been compiled and furnished to the Election Commission of India.

Stating that 13.72 lakh claims were admitted and 5.60 lakh rejected during summary revision in 2006, he said net addition of electorate from draft rolls as reflected in the final rolls was 13.33 lakh.

Mr Gupta said the coverage of Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) during the current campaign till March 19 had been 39 lakh, against the total number of two crore residual electors at the beginning of the campaign. The EPIC campaign would continue till April 20.

He said the EC had reiterated its instruction to provide ramps at all polling stations for the disabled.

As identification of electors had been made mandatory, the EC had instructed all presiding/polling officers to note down what identification document was produced by electors at the time of casting his/her vote, along with the number of documents produced in the Register in Form 17A, he added.

Asked about the controversy over the transfer of Chennai Police Commissioner R Nataraj by the EC for praising Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, Mr Gupta said he could not comment as the matter was subjudice.

To a question, he said though Government employees were entitled to air their grievances in public, they should not take sides and campaign for any political party in the elections.

Earlier, Mr Gupta reviewed poll arrangements with eight District Collectors in the northern region.

UNI AKN SC RS1755