ECI to release exact voter turnout in TN
Chennai (PTI): The Election Commission is all set to release the exact number of persons who have exercised their franchise in the Tamil Nadu Assembly election, on Saturday. The voter turnout figures will include details of gender divisions: male, female and transgender.
The single-phase elections to the 234-seat Tamil Nadu Assembly were held on April 23, and the counting of votes will be held on May 4.
In addition, the ECI authorities here will be inspecting all the strong rooms where the EVMs and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) units are kept.
A senior ECI official here said that the 85.15 per cent voter turnout figures, released on the date of polling, are not final and they are based on data received from a subset of polling stations. He said the actual number of votes polled at each polling station is formally recorded in Form 17C, which will be cross-verified with the data in the ECI headquarters.
The poll authorities have begun scrutinising the total number of voters since Friday morning by visiting all the districts. The official stated that the overall polling turnout, which is expected to be released on Saturday, will not include data from postal ballot voting, which is compiled separately and added to the final official count.
He said about 4.18 lakh postal votes have been recorded so far across Tamil Nadu, with participation from service voters, senior citizens, and persons with disabilities across Tamil Nadu.
The official said that the ECI authorities will manually visit every strong room where the EVMs and VVPATs are kept, to review the security measures.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
NEET student hangs self in Rajasthan's Sikar
Jaipur (PTI): A student preparing for the NEET examination allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in a rented room in Rajasthan's Sikar on Friday, police said.
According to the police, the student allegedly hanged himself from a ceiling fan using his sister's scarf while one sister was attending coaching classes and the other was in the bathroom.
He had appeared in the NEET UG exam 2026, which was cancelled due to paper leak, they said.
Udyog Nagar SHO Rajesh Kumar said that the deceased, identified as Pradeep Meghwal, was a resident of Kanika ki Dhani village in Jhunjhunu's Gudha Gaudji area.
He had been living in a rented room in Sikar's Jaldhari Nagar area with his two sisters while preparing for NEET over the last three years.
His elder sister later found him hanging and informed the landlord and police after bringing him down, officials said.
The SHO said the body was kept at SK Hospital mortuary, and a postmortem had not been conducted.
The student's father, Rajesh Kumar Meghwal, told police that Pradeep's NEET examination had gone well and the family was expecting him to score around 650 marks.
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot expressed grief over the incident and linked it to anxiety among students after reports of irregularities and paper leaks in NEET 2026.
Pilot said repeated paper leak incidents and cancellation of examinations were affecting students' mental health and demanded a time-bound investigation and strict action against those responsible.
