Chennai, Saturday 19 December 2009: Polling for by-elections to two Tamil Nadu Assembly constituencies began this morning amidst tight security.

Polling was peaceful with people queueing up at the booths in Vandavasi (SC) and Tiruchendur where the by-polls are being held, police said. Besides state police, paramilitary forces have also been deployed, especially in sensitive booths, to ensure peaceful polling, officials said.

The by-polls were necessitated by the death of DMK MLA SC Jayaraman at Vandavasi and resignation of former AIADMK MLA Anitha R Radhakrishnan at Tiruchendur.

The counting will be held on December 23. After the Lok Sabha polls, this is the first time archrivals DMK and AIADMK are on the electoral battle turf as the latter had boycotted bypolls to five assembly seats in August. Actor-politician Vijayakant’s DMDK is also in fray.