India, April 24 -- Tamil Nadu and 152 constituencies in West Bengal registered record voting on Thursday in assembly polls that were largely free of violence, a trend reflecting mass deletions in electoral rolls and prompting the ruling and opposition sides in both states to claim victory.

In Tamil Nadu, where all 234 seats went to the polls, a voting percentage of 85.11% was recorded at 11pm. With 57.3 million electors in the state according to an ECI press release on April 23, this translates to 48.8 million voters, also the highest turnout in the state's history. A higher turnout than previous polls is generally expected with a growing adult population. However, this was put in doubt because the SIR exercise excised 11.6% of the state...