There was tension and drama in several booths in RK Nagar constituency, where AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa was contesting from, on Monday with voters walking out of the booths and party workers getting into a row with policemen over a sudden power outage in the afternoon.
Voters alleged that AIADMK had intentionally disconnected power supply to cast bogus votes. The issue led to suspension in polling for 20 minutes in at least two booths.
Hundreds of voters had queued up in the 14 booths in ECI Merit School in Nehru Nagar, when a group of poll agents walked into one of the booths and seized the election ink. They alleged that some election officers were conniving with few party men, taking advantage of the power cuts to cast bogus votes.
The situation got out of hand when Josili, a 42-year-old voter, complained that someone had already cast a vote in her name. "I headed straight to the poll booth from Tirunelveli and waited for an hour in the queue only to find that someone had already voted on my behalf," she said.
This led to booth agents of various parties raising slogans against the Election Commission, with several of agents getting into a fierce argument with policemen and election officials. A posse of policemen and central forces rushed in take charge of the situation.
"They have deliberately disconnected electricity supply in the booth to cast bogus votes with ink that you can easily wipe off with a piece of cloth. We can't let that happen," said an angry poll agent, AT Mani.
Several parts of Chennai including Old Washermenpet, Royapettah and Triplicane also experienced power cuts.
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