Tamil Nadu goes to poll

Ø     Clamping of prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code by election authorities for the first time across the State

Ø     The State has a polling station at Padmanabhapuram in Kanyakumari district for just 18 voters, and there are 17 polling stations with less than 100 voters.

Ø     Central Chennai, in a first pilot experiment of its kind, will have 3,630 Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), wherein a voter will be able to see a printout of the symbol of the candidate after casting his vote.

Ø     Every fifth voter in the State is a young voter, meaning that such a voter belongs to the age group of 18 to 29. Of the total number of around 5.5 crore electors, the share of the community of young voters is around 21.91 per cent.

Ø     Tamil Nadu has achieved the highest rate of increase in the number of electors in the country in the past five years. The State’s electorate has grown by 29.15 per cent. In 2009, it was 4.16 crore.

Ø     The only major party with no candidates having serious criminal cases against them is the CPI.

Ø     38% of PMK’s and 29% of MDMK’s candidates have declared serious criminal cases registered against them.

Ø     21% of the 835 candidates are ‘crorepatis’, with declared assets worth more than Rs. 1 crore.

Ø     97% or 33 out of 34 candidates from the DMK feature in the crorepati list.

Ø     80% of the AIADMK’s 39 candidates also feature on that list of crorepati
Ø For the first time in the history of Indian Lok Sabha Elections, a transgender is contesting in Madurai Lok Sabha Constituency 
Ø   22 Constituencies -- women electors exceed men 

THE BREAK – UP
Serious Criminal Cases on Candidates: Party Wise Percentage
DMDK	21%
DMK	15%
AAP	13%
BJP	11%
Congress	10%
AIADMK	08%
Average Assets: Party Wise (in Rs.)
BJP	31.77 crore
Congress	18.60 crore
DMK	10.69 crore
DMDK	09.95 crore
AIADMK	06.34 crore
AAP	02.79 crore
Only 53 women out of 844 candidates
65% or 545 candidates in the age group of 25 – 50 years

Top 10 richest candidates in Tamil Nadu:

Name	Party	Const	Asset (Rs in Cr.)
H Vasanthakumar	Congress	Kanyakumari	285.8
A C Shanmugam	BJP	Vellore	106.1
K N Ramachandran	AIADMK	Sriperumbudur	093.7
S Jagatrakshakan	DMK	Sriperumbudur	078.0
T R Pachamuthu	BJP	Perambalur	077.7
R Prabhu	Congress	Coimbatore	060.9
Karti Chidambaram	Congress	Sivaganga	059.7
Sarubala Thondaiman	Congress	Trichy	057.1
P Palanisamy	DMK	Pollachi	040.7
Anbumani Ramadoss	PMK	Dharmapuri	31.4

(Biggest misses in top ten are: A. Raja and Dayanidhi Maran)