Chennai: Tamil Nadu witnessed a record voter turnout of over 85 per cent on Thursday during elections to 234 Assembly constituencies even as voters defied the scorching heat and turned up at polling stations to exercise their franchise.
The state is locked in a three-cornered electoral battle involving the ruling DMK, AIADMK and new entrant, actor-politician Joseph C Vijay-led TVK.
The day of polling was hot with the sun beating down intensely as early as 7 pm in several regions of the state including capital Chennai. As the day progressed, the severity of the heat only intensified with districts such as Vellore, Karur, and Namakkal recording temperatures well past 40 degree Celsius.
Nevertheless, voting proceeded briskly across the state right from the morning hours. Citizens arrived at polling stations with great enthusiasm to cast their votes with the heat failing to dampen their spirits.
The turnout was a record 85.05 per cent with the ruling DMK, which put up a big fight over delimitation to target the AIADMK-BJP’s NDA, fighting hard to retain power. The main opposition AIADMK, that cornered the incumbent regime over a slew of issues including burgeoning debt burden and alleged law and order deterioration, slogged to wrest power.
The fledgling TVK led by charismatic actor-politician Vijay and Tamil nationalist Seeman’s over 15-year old NTK are pretty serious players in the electoral arena. Both DMK and AIADMK exuded confidence of winning.
A polling officer marks the finger of a woman with indelible ink inside a polling station in Chennai
Responding to the new voter turnout, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said: “Highest-ever percentage of polling in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu since independence. The ECI salutes each voter of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.” Election officials indicated that the numbers were still being consolidated and that the final voting percentage might increase.
Every Assembly election since 2001 has seen an increase of at least 30 lakh votes, sources claimed. At 6 pm, when voting ended, 85.05 per cent of the 5.73 crore eligible voters, which was approximately 4.87 crore, exercised their franchise. Karur recorded the highest turnout of 91.86 per cent and the lowest was 75.50 per cent in Kanyakumari.
An elderly man shows the indelible ink mark on his index finger after casting his vote in Chennai
Prior to the 2026 elections, the 2011 polls witnessed 78.29 per cent, the highest in TN poll history. Late J Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK trounced archrival DMK in the hustings then.
In 2021 Assembly polls, the turnout was 73.63 per cent and 4.59 crore electors had voted. In 2021, about 6.29 crore was the registered number of voters.
The 4.82 crore votes polled on April 23 for the 2026 Assembly election is approximately 23 lakh more than what was witnessed in 2021. DMK President and Chief Minister MK Stalin said “Tamil Nadu will win”, adding, people’s vote upholding the highest values of Constitution such as democracy, secularism, states’ rights and social Justice was a shield to protect Tamil Nadu.
IADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami exuded confidence that his party would return to power. On the historic turnout, BJP’s Narayanan Thirupathy said that the full credit goes to EC’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
While there were no major untoward incidents, boycott of the voting process was witnessed in different places over various issues. Voters linked to Vengaivayal village in Pudukottai district boycotted polling over the incident of faeces being mixed in an overhead water tank a few years ago.
Further, villagers near Ettayapuram in Thoothukudi district boycotted the election and their polling station Kulathuvoypatti union primary school under the Vilathikulam Assembly constituency wore a deserted look as only five votes were cast out of the total 983.
Their boycott was due to a local dispute over using a pathway. In Madurai, booth agents clashed at Keezhavasal. At Kalasapakkam in Tiruvannamalai, an agent of an independent candidate allegedly broke a control unit and it was replaced. Tension prevailed at a polling booth under Arisipalayam, Salem city, during voting in view of a sudden clash between booth agents of the AIADMK and DMK.
BJP leaders K Annamalai and Vanathi Srinivasan accused the DMK of money distribution while party candidate from Mylapore in Chennai, Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan accused the ruling party of trying to influence voters by open display of its Rising Sun symbol.
Incidents like AIADMK leader and former Minister Dindigul C Srinivasan reportedly pressing the ‘red light’ on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) instead of the button to cast vote amused people. Later, the polling official pointed to the button and he cast his vote.
In Coimbatore, Vellore and Dharmapuri districts, ‘Robo Tina,’ dressed like a cute little girl welcomed voters to the polling station and gave flowers and chocolates to the people.
At Namakkal, Mariaayi, reportedly 110 years old, cast her vote. Speaking to reporters, she said she had seen so many leaders including DMK founder CN Annadurai and AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran in her life.
