He said the electronic voting machines (EVM) will be closed by the presiding officer in the presence of polling agents immediately after polling.

Though AIADMK, PMK and MDMK have boycotted the polls DMK-Congress combine did not take it easy and they had asked their district secretaries to go for gold.

DMK's organising secretary for southern Tamil Nadu Districts and union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers M.K. Alagiri has announced a prize of 25 sovereign gold chains to the district secretary who gets the party candidates the highest votes.

Alagiri had said the chain will be presented from his own funds.

A similar award was announced by Congress leader Thankabalu for his party district secretaries.

DMDK promoted by actor-turned-politician Vijaykant is hoping to cash in on the votes of AIADMK cadres. The party posters had both M.G. Ramachandran, founder of AIADMK, and Vijaykanth's pictures.

Similarly the DMK party cadres are targeting the votes of AIADMK sympathisers and cadres even though the latter has asked its supporters not to cast their votes.

The ruling party wants to increase the percentage of votes polled to show that people in large numbers are not in favour of AIADMK's poll boycott call and its cadres are approaching every household in all the five constituencies to ensure that people would vote.