Exit poll banned in RK Nagar constituency from where Jayalalitha will contest

Exit poll on June 27, the day of polling for the RK Nagar assembly constituency byelection here, from where AIADMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief minister Jayalalithaa is seeking re-election has been prohibited.

Opinion polls by electronic media too are banned during the 48 hours ending with conclusion of poll exercise on June 27.

"The Election Commission notifies the period between 7 am and 5.30 pm on June 27 as the period during which conducting any exit poll or dissemination of its results shall be prohibited," Chief Electoral Officer, Tamil Nadu, Sandeep Saxena said in a release here.

Quoting rules, he said "opinion poll or any other poll survey in any electronic media would be prohibited during the period of 48 hours ending with the hour fixed for conclusion of poll for the RK Nagar byelection."

Fifty candidates including Jayalaliathaa, CPI nominee C Mahendran and social activist "Traffic" Ramasamy had filed nominations for the byelection.

Out of them, the nominations of 18 were rejected and 32 had accepted yesterday, the date of scrutiny of papers.

Saturday is the last date for withdrawal of candidature.

While polls will be on June 27, the counting will be on June 30.

The by-election was necessitated due to the resignation of AIADMK MLA P Vetrivel on May 17, after Jayalalithaa was acquitted in an assets case by the Karnataka High Court on May 11