Kanniyakumari Collector R. Alagumeena chairs a meeting on March 15, 2026
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Kanniyakumari Collector R. Alagumeena on Sunday (March 15, 2026) announced that a total of 137 polling stations in the district had been identified as vulnerable.
Following the announcement of the schedule for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, the model of code of conduct has come into force in six constituencies each in Thoothukudi and Kanniyakumari districts and five constituencies each in Tirunelveli and Tenkasi districts.
Addressing media persons at the Collectorate here, she said all arrangements for conducting the elections were in place in the district. The administration was focusing on increasing the voter turnout, which was around 63% in the last Lok Sabha elections and about 68% in 2021 Assembly elections.
The district had around 12,000 differently abled individuals, and all facilities had been made at polling stations to ensure easy accessibility to them.
The Upper Kodhayar polling station of Padmanabhapuram constituency had only six voters, and arrangements had been made for poll officials to travel more than 125 km through Manjolai in Tirunelveli district to reach the booth.
The district had 1,916 polling stations, and flying squad and statistics surveillance teams had been deployed across all constituencies in the district, she said.
Collector K. Ellambahavath addresses a meeting in Thoothukudi on Sunday.
| Photo Credit:
N. Rajesh
At a press conference held in Thoothukudi, Collector K. Elambahavath said all arrangements had been made to conduct elections in the district.
The district had a total of 13,76,624 voters (6,71,742 men, 7,04,689 women and 193 others) across six constituencies. It had 1,864 polling stations, and the Election Commission had directed officials to create auxiliary polling stations where the number of voters exceeded 1,200. Accordingly, a proposal had been sent to establish four auxiliary stations, which woud increase the number of polling stations to 1,868.
A total of 8,967 state government employees would be deployed for election duty, including four personnel for each polling station along with an additional 20% reserve staff.
He said that 246 sensitive and vulnerable polling stations had been identified in the district, and to monitor them 244 micro observers from Central departments and public sector banks had been appointed.
In Thoothukudi district, a total of 54 flying squads and 54 static surveillance teams had been formed across six constituencies to function round the clock.
In the last Assembly elections, the district recorded 70.02% voter turnout, while 66.98% turnout was recorded during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Awareness programmes would be conducted across the district to increase the voter turnout, he said.
Tirunelveli Collector R. Sukumar told presspersons that the district had 1,678 polling stations and 298 had been identified as vulnerable and sensitive.
The district recorded 67.60% voting in 2021 Assembly elections and 64.63% in 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Awareness programmes would be conducted across the district to increase the voting percentage.
The district had a total of 12,57,047 voters (6,13,041 men, 6,43,860 women and 146 others).
Mr. Sukumar said a total of 8,054 government staff would be deployed for election duty for the 1,678 polling stations.
Published – March 15, 2026 09:27 pm IST
