• Wion
  • /India News
  • /Political heavyweights in Tamil Nadu cast their votes as polling begins 

Political heavyweights in Tamil Nadu cast their votes as polling begins 

Political heavyweights in Tamil Nadu cast their votes as polling begins 

Rajinikanth

Political heavyweights including actor-turned-politician Rajinikanth, Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram,Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan,Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palanisamy andKiran Bediamong others cast their votes minutes after polling began in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections on Thursday.

Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan and his daughter Shruti Haasan cast their votes at Alwarpet Corporation School in Chennai to cast their votes while Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palanisamy cast his vote at a polling station in Edappadi, Selam.

Kiran Bedi, Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, exercised her franchise at a polling station in Puducherry.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

Rajinikanth cast his vote at the polling station in Stella Maris College, in Chennai Central parliamentary constituency while P Chidambaram exercised his franchise a polling station in Karaikudi, Sivaganga.

Nalini Chidambaram, Karti Chidambaram and his wife Srinidi Rangarajan also cast their vote at the same polling station in Karaikudi.

Polling began Thursday morning for 95 Lok Sabha seats spread across 11 states and the union territory of Puducherry with Tamil Nadu witnessing contest in 38 constituencies.

Voting was also underway in 35 assembly constituencies in Odisha and in 18 assembly seats in Tamil Nadu.

Prominent faces in the fray in the Lok Sabha contest are Union ministers Jitendra Singh, Jual Oram, Sadananda Gowda and Pon Radhakrishnan; former prime minister H D Deve Gowda; DMK's Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and Kanimozhi; Congress leaders Verappa Moily and Raj Babbar; National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and BJP's Hema Malini.

Over 15.80 crore voters will decide the fate of the 1,600-odd contestants.
In Tamil Nadu, polling is being held in 38 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats. Polling in Vellore Lok Sabha seat was cancelled Tuesday by the Election Commission following the recovery of a huge amount of cash allegedly from an associate of a DMK leader recently.

The EC also announced postponement of polling in Tripura (East) Lok Sabha seat to the third phase on April 23, saying the prevailing law-and-order situation there is not conducive for holding free and fair polls.

Besides Tamil Nadu, polling is being held in 14 seats in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one seat each in Manipur and Puducherry.

(With inputs from PTI)