Polling began this morning in RK Nagar Assembly constituency where by-election is being conducted. Except for a couple of initial hitches with the functioning of Electronic Voting machines at booth No.1 and 83, polling is going on smoothly in all booths. Election officials had set right the repair works within a few minutes. Large number of voters waiting in long queues to exercise their franchise. There are 28 candidates including Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa. Though there are 28 candidates in the fray, the straight contest is between Jayalalithaa and the CPI candidate C Mahendran. The RK Nagar seat fell vacant following the resignation of P Vetrivel who had represented the constituency. Jayalalithaa, who had contested from Srirangam in the 2011 Assembly polls, is contesting from Chennai for the first time. Opposition parties including the DMK, MDMK, Congress, PMK, VCK, the TMC and the BJP-led NDA boycotted by-election for various reasons. Since 2011, the AIADMK has won all the six by-elections and RK Nagar is the seventh. Polling will be held on June 27 and the counting of votes will be held on June 30 and the results would be declared on the same day. There are 2.43 lakh voters in RK Nagar constituency.
