At 84.6%, Tamil Nadu breaks previous polling highs
Some areas see clashes between party workers. Scattered instances of glitches and complaints were also reported
In Tamil Nadu, voting across all 234 assembly constituencies took place on April 23, with the state seeing a strong voter turnout of over 85%. By Thursday evening, Tamil Nadu’s polling booths had begun to resemble what they often do on the state’s biggest political days: long, patient queues curling past school gates, elderly voters leaning on walking sticks, first-time voters comparing inked fingers, party agents watching every movement, and the occasional burst of commotion breaking the rhythm of an otherwise orderly day.
By the end of the voting process, Tamil Nadu had recorded 84.6% polling, according to the Election Commission, the highest-ever turnout in an Assembly election in the state since 1952, surpassing the previous high of 78.29% in 2011. Chennai, often seen as slower to warm up than the rest of the state, also posted a strong 81.34% turnout by 5 pm.
Across the state’s 234 constituencies, voters turned out in large numbers to decide the fate of 4,023 candidates in a contest centred on the ruling DMK-led alliance, the AIADMK-led NDA, actor-politician Vijay’s TVK, and the Seeman-led NTK. Tamil Nadu’s electorate stands at 5.73 crore, including 2.93 crore women, 2.83 crore men and 7,728 third-gender voters. Polling was held in 75,064 booths across 33,133 locations.
Some polling booths witnessed colourful scenes. In Chennai, a newly married couple in wedding attire rushed to vote minutes after tying the knot, while at Stella Maris College, a three-generation family of 14 turned up together, saying voting as a unit was a family tradition. In Coimbatore, students deployed a sari-clad robot named “Tina” to greet voters and hand out toffees, drawing selfies from young electors even as officials stressed the seriousness of the exercise.
Turnout rose steadily through the day — 17.69% by 9 am, 37.56% by 11 am, 56.81% by 1 pm and 70% by 3 pm — with districts such as Salem, Namakkal, Karur, Erode and Tiruppur leading the charts. At 3 pm, Salem recorded 75.79%, Edappadi 75.84%, while Kolathur, where Chief Minister M K Stalin is in the fray, saw 70.24%.
Leaders across parties sought to read the heavy voting in their favour. After casting his vote with wife Durga Stalin and family in Chennai, Stalin said, “Tamil Nadu will win,” repeating a line he has used through the campaign to frame the election as a battle over the state’s rights and political direction. Later in the day, he visited the DMK’s election war room at Anna Arivalayam, where a control room had been set up to coordinate and respond to complaints from the ground.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, who voted in his home turf of Edappadi, said he was “100% confident” of victory for the AIADMK-BJP alliance. Senior AIADMK leaders escalated that claim throughout the day, with former minister S P Velumani speaking of a sweep and predicting that the alliance would cross 210 seats. Velumani also alleged a lack of transparency in Coimbatore, claimed tokens were distributed to voters in Kavundampalayam, and accused the administration and police of acting improperly. He further alleged that AIADMK candidate Amman Arjunan was obstructed in Coimbatore South.
PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss, another NDA ally, said the brisk polling signalled “change in government” and described the turnout as a sign that public anger over unemployment, rising prices, tax burdens and law-and-order concerns was translating into votes.
TVK chief Vijay, contesting from Perambur and Tiruchirappalli East, cast his vote early in Chennai before writing to the Election Commission seeking a two-hour extension of polling. Citing long queues, slow movement at booths and transport disruptions at key bus termini such as Koyambedu, Kilambakkam and Madhavaram, Vijay alleged that the “systemic failure” could disenfranchise voters.
He demanded emergency bus services and better booth supervision. But Chennai District Election Officer J Kumaragurubaran said that in all 16 Assembly constituencies in the city, every voter who entered a polling station by 6 pm would be allowed to vote, even if the queue extended to 8 or 9 pm or beyond.
The day was not without friction. In Salem’s Arisipalayam, a clash broke out inside Booth No. 139 between AIADMK and DMK booth agents after a voter allegedly misread a conversation, leading to a scuffle and police intervention. In Coimbatore’s Gandhimanagar, DMK and BJP workers clashed after BJP district president Ramesh Kumar arrived in an Election Commission-authorised vehicle near a booth, prompting a heated confrontation over access. BJP leader K Annamalai later claimed the poll process in Coimbatore South had been “vitiated” in the last few days and criticised the Election Commission’s pre-poll handling.
There were also technical glitches. EVM snags delayed polling by 30 minutes at two booths in Tiruppur and halted voting for nearly an hour at a booth in Namakkal’s Nallipalayam before officials restored the machines. In Coimbatore, polling staff briefly chased down a first-time voter after realising the mandatory indelible ink had not been applied.
Film stars, from Rajinikanth, Ajith Kumar, Kamal Haasan and Vijay to Suriya, Jyothika, Trisha and Vijay Sethupathi, added visibility to polling booths, but the more telling images came from the lines of voters themselves: families arriving together, hundreds who were still on the highways to reach their native towns to vote, first-time voters waiting under the sun, and a state turning out in record numbers to decide whether to renew the DMK’s mandate, restore the AIADMK to power, or make room for a new disruption in Tamil politics.
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