Parties sensitise counting agents; traffic diversions near Trichy counting centre

Trichy: Ahead of counting of votes polled in the assembly election on Monday, major political parties in Trichy conducted training and sensitisation events on Sunday to caution their counting agents about dos and don'ts inside the counting centres of nine Assembly segments. As the vote counting for five constituencies will be held at Jamal Mohamed College at TVS tollgate on Trichy-Chennai NH, city police have announced traffic diversion and closure of roads in the vicinity.DMK sources said the party provided stationery items to its counting agents and briefed them on how to remain alert during counting. Srirangam segment will have 27 rounds of counting, the highest, followed by Manapparai at 25 rounds. The other seven constituencies will have 20-23 rounds of counting each. "Most of our counting agents are experienced in tracking the vote counting process of assembly elections. Since it is expected to be a close contest in some constituencies, our agents were told to keep a close watch on counting postal votes and conduct of other parties' counting agents," an IT wing functionary with DMK said.Constituency-wise review meetings were held by DMK in the three district units. AIADMK sources said their agents were told to check booth-wise votes polled in all constituencies, whether the total votes counted tallies with the total votes polled in booths. Trichy district polled 18,59,016 votes, with a polling percentage of 86.5%. Vote counting will start with counting postal votes, at 8am. Counting of votes polled in Manachanallur, Lalgudi, Musiri and Thuraiyur will be held at Oasys Training Institute in Pulivalam.Citing the vote counting process, Trichy city police have urged vehicles to use Trichy semi-ring road via Panjapur to reach Pudukottai, instead of using TVS tollgate area. Vehicles have been instructed to use Wireless Road, KK Nagar, Rajaram Road and Mannarpuram, thus avoiding Trichy-Pudukottai NH and TVS tollgate junction that connects Jamal Mohamed College. Vehicles heading to Trichy airport were also told to use KK Nagar and LIC Colony route instead of TVS tollgate. The road between IG office and Racecourse Road will be closed for public movement. Flying drones in the area has also been banned.