Chennai, April 13: Unlike the muted election campaign, voting day turned out to be a big festival with Tamil Nadu registering the highest ever voting percentage in its electoral history.

Chief electoral officer K. Praveen Kumar estimated the turnout at 75.21 per cent, adding that the final tally would be known only later since all those who joined the voting line till 5pm were being allowed to vote. In 2006, the voting percentage was 70.84.

“In many villages, the polling booths were kept open till 7pm to enable farm workers who joined the line before closing time to cast their votes,” he said.

The Thirumangalam constituency in Madurai district witnessed the highest turnout of 80 per cent, almost equalling the byelection turnout of 89 per cent for the same seat in January 2009. The DMK had won the byeletion, during which the party perfected the cash incentive formula it had used in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and also during the current round.

In urban areas, young voters and those from the middle and upper middle classes turned out in large numbers today.

Both the ruling DMK and the Opposition AIADMK were quick to interpret the high turnout as an indication of largescale support for their respective combines.

The DMK contended that the rural voters had honoured their promise to vote for them after receiving money. “Why otherwise would so many of them wait for hours in this hot sun to cast their vote?” asked a DMK functionary.

But AIADMK managers inferred that high turnouts always resulted in anti-incumbency votes and the ouster of the ruling party. “Such a large turnout can only mean one thing — the voters have given a huge thumbs-down to the DMK,” said AIADMK MP V. Mythreyan.

A former election officer of the state attributed the high turnout to the weeding out of a large number of redundant entries like deceased voters and those who had moved out of constituencies. “My nephew, who had moved to the US three years ago, was removed from the voters’ list this time during the examining stage. With thousands of such entries deleted across the state, even a 65 per cent percent in the past would be 75 per cent today,” he reasoned.

One more reason could be voter approval for the stern steps taken by the Election Commission to ensure free and fair polls, he added.

“The heavy turnout in the cities could be bad news for the DMK but the large crowds in the villages could mean support for the ruling party in return for the money taken,” an AICC member said. However, a senior intelligence officer said that since the AIADMK candidates, too, had disbursed money in the villages during the last two days, the voter turnout had shot up in rural areas. “The rural voter has benefited both ways, so it would be difficult to gauge which way he would have voted,” he said.

But for first-time voters, Wednesday marked a milestone.

T. Malathi, 19, a dental student from Velachery constituency in South Chennai, said voting for the first time was indeed a thrilling experience. “I waited for over 50 minutes before my turn came. The long beep of the EVM when I pressed the button of my choice was sweeter than the ringtone on my mobile phone,” she said.

Her classmate R. Bhuvana, 19, who voted in the Thousand Lights constituency in central Chennai, said that she had originally thought of exercising the option of stating that no candidate was worth her vote. “But my elder brother convinced me not to waste my first ever vote on that or any Independents,” she said.