Chennai, April 9 (IANS): The Election Commission has identified 67 polling booths in the Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu as critical and vulnerable.

The ECI will deploy micro observers in these polling booths.

A statement from ECI said these booths have been identified as critical and vulnerable based on past experiences and voting patterns in previous elections.

The polling would also be streamed live from the vulnerable booths. The micro observers will monitor whether all facilities are available at the polling stations.

A mock polling exercise will be conducted. The micro observers will monitor the mock polls and declaration of results. The working of the EVMs and VVPATs and other activities at the polling stations will also be monitored.

The Election Commission would also arrange extra police deployment in these 67 critical and vulnerable polling booths of the district.

In the Villupuram Lok Sabha constituency, sitting MP and VCK leader D. Ravikumar is fighting against PMK's S. Murali Sankar.

PMK is a political party of the powerful Vanniyar community while the VCK is a Dalit political party. There have been several violent incidents between the two groups, hence the security measures by the EC.