3,000 People Form Human Chain Because They Want A 100% Voter Turnout In Their Lok Sabha Constituency Ramanathapuram

Elections in India started on April 11 and will continue in seven phases till May 19. The counting will be held on May 23. The Election commission of India is running a nation-wide campaign called the Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) program to create voter awareness.

In Tamil Nadu where the Lok Sabha elections are due to take place on April 18, more than 3,000 people gathered yesterday to form the longest human chain in the district on Annai Indira Gandhi Road Bridge, popularly known as Pamban Road Bridge, ANI reported.

The chain was formed to create election awareness and calling out voters for 100% attendance during the polls. The Hindu reported that the large chain was led by District Election Officer and Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao. Hundreds of local residents, women from self-help groups as well as beneficiaries of International Fund for Agriculture Development and Community-based Disaster Risk Management formed the chain.

Photo: ANI

Tourists and Pilgrims cheered for participants of the human chain on the 2.3-km-long bridge. Mr. Rao addressed the gathering by saying that this was the longest human chain that they had formed on the Pamban Road bridge as part of the SVEEP activities in the festival of democracy.

First-time voters, elderly voters as well differently-abled are being urged to come out of their house and exercise their right to vote. As the mega voting exercise kicked off yesterday in Andamans, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh etc for 91 seats across 20 states, many voters were turned away when they found their names missing from the EC voter¡¯s list.

Photo: ANI

A top executive at Apollo hospitals Shobana Kamineni was one of the voters whose name was missing from the voting list. Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw tweeted that her mother's name was deleted from the voter list. Meanwhile, in some areas the EVMs were not working properly while in Andhra Pradesh, a Jana Sena candidate crashed the EVM on the floor.

Photo: ANI

On March 26, the Raipur district administration organised a cricket match and a tug of war as part of the SVEEP campaign. The tournament was named as the Raipur Vote Cricket tournament. A women bike rally was also organised in the maoist-infested state to create awareness regarding elections.

The SVEEP campaign was also being run at all government hospitals including primary health centres and community health centres of Jagdalpur district in Chhattisgarh.