Bypolls to two Assembly seats in Tamil Nadu and one in Puducherry ended peacefully without any untoward incidents and each of these segments have clocked voting percentage of over 65 per cent.
In Tamil Nadu, Vikravandi segment topped with 84.36 per cent voting, and it was 66.10 per cent in Nanguneri and Puducherry's Kamaraj Nagar segment saw 69.44 per cent polling, election officials said.
In 2016 Assembly elections, Vikravandi had registered 81.25 per cent and Nanguneri 71.92 per cent voting.
Congress Kanyakumari MP, H Vasanthakumar was arrested for alleged corrupt practices and for staying in Nanguneri assembly constituency in Tirunelveli district in 'violation' of election rules, police said.
Vasanthakumar, whose resignation on his election to the Lok Sabha necessitated the bypoll in Nanguneri, was later produced before a court which released him on bail.
Asked about the issue, Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said, "As per the Representation of the People Act and the Indian Penal Code, an FIR has been filed and the matter will be followed up."
Glitches in respect of equipment like Voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPATs) were not high, he told reporters here, adding such equipment were replaced immediately and polls were held "smoothly and very peacefully".
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The voting exercise kicked off at a brisk phase at 7 am amid tight security for the by-elections.
In Kamaraj Nagar, polling was sluggish for a while since rains played spoilsport and it picked pace after showers eased.
Polling ended at 6 pm in Vikravandi, Nanguneri and Kamaraj Nagar and voters who waited in the queue at the time of closure were given tokens and allowed to vote.
As the voting exercise began, women outnumbered men in several polling stations in Vikravandi and Nanguneri. Both youngsters and senior citizens showed equal interest in exercising their franchise.
In Puducherry, where the ruling Congress party's A John Kumar and the Opposition AINRC nominee S Bhuvaneswaran are the key contenders, police took into custody three people allegedly belonging to the Congress for distributing "tokens," to people near a polling station.
Leaders of the opposition AIADMK and AINRC staged a road roko urging the election authorities to take action against those who had resorted to "luring" voters by allegedly distributing tokens encashable later for purchasing household products.
In Nanguneri, which has 2.57 lakh voters, 23 candidates are in the fray and Vikravandi with 2.23 lakh electors, 12 nominees are trying their luck.
Polling was delayed initially in a couple of polling stations at Nanguneri in view of glitches in EVMs.
The ruling AIADMK's M R Muthamizhselvan and DMK's N Pugazhendhi are locked in a straight fight in Vikravandi.
Nanguneri is seeing a direct contest between DMK backed Congress nominee 'Ruby' R Manoharan and AIADMK's Reddiyarpatti V Narayanan.
In both these constituencies, filmmaker-turned- politician Seeman-led Naam Tamilar Katchi is expected to cut into the vote share of both the Dravidian majors to an extent.
Over 3,000 personnel were deployed to conduct bypolls in Tamil Nadu and six companies of paramilitary forces -three each in two segments- were pressed into service in addition to State police.
All the 574 polling stations in Vikravandi (275) and Nanguneri (299) were covered by live web streaming.
In Kamaraj Nagar constituency, which has 35,009 voters, Central armed police force personnel were deployed besides territorial police.
The outcome of the bypolls in both Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Puducherry is not likely to have a bearing on the stability of the respective governments steered by the AIADMK and Congress.
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