Brisk polling was witnessed in Thanjavur, Aravakkurichi and Thirupparankundram in Tamil Nadu and Nellithope in Puducherry today amid tight security.

Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy, a non-member of the House, is taking on AIADMK candidate Om Sakthi Segar, at Nellithope.

People were seen queuing up in polling booths in all the constituencies and poll officials said the voting percentage would be good at the end of the day. Rangasamy (AIADMK) and DMK’s Anjugam Bhoopathy are main contenders in Thanjavur.

In Aravakkurichi, Senthil Balaji (AIADMK) and K.C. Palanisamy (DMK) are in the fray, while AIADMK’s A.K. Bose is pitted against DMK’s Saravanan at Thirupparankundram.

Polling crossed 50 per cent in all the three constituencies at 1 p.m. (Thanjavur – 50 p.c. Aravakkurichi 62 p.c. Thirupparankundram – 53 p.c. Nellithope – 61 p.c.)

Chief Minister and AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa, undergoing treatment at Apollo Hospitals, has urged people to vote for her party in the three constituencies and lone seat in Puducherry.

While in Aravakkurichi the total electorate is 2,00,347, in Thanjavur it is 2,68,516 and in Thirupparankundram it is 2,85,980. Aravakkurichi has 245 polling stations, Thanjavur 276 and Thirupparankundram 291.

In Nellithope, voters were seen standing in queues even before 7 a.m. In some booths, men voters turned up in larger number than women much ahead of commencement of the polling. Nine candidates are in the fray in the constituency.

The by-poll was necessary to fill vacancy caused by the vacation of the Nellithope seat by Congress legislator A John Kumar who quit his post as MLA on September 15 to enable Narayanasamy, a non-member of the House, to contest.