Residents cast their vote at a polling centre in the village of Jaula in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. (AFP Photo)
Moderate voting has been reported in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar and Kerala, five of the 11 states and three union territories where polling for the general elections is being held today.
(India Votes 2014: full coverage)According to the figures released by the Election Commission till 1 pm, Kerala recorded a voter turnout of over 43 percent. In UP, Haryana and Bihar the voter turnout was a little over 30 per cent and in Delhi, 24.30 per cent voters had cast their votes till 1 pm, the Election Commission said.
91 of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies vote today - all seven seats in Delhi, 10 in Uttar Pradesh, six in Bihar, 10 each in Haryana, Odisha and Maharashtra, all 20 in Kerala, four in Jharkhand, nine in Madhya Pradesh and one seat each in Chhattisgarh and in Chandigarh, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshwadeep and Jammu and Kashmir. (
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Odisha is also voting for a new state assembly today. (
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In Bihar, two paramilitary jawans were killed and four others were injured in a suspected Naxal attack near Jamui, where voting is being held. (
2 jawans killed in suspected Naxal attack on polling day in Bihar)
Voting has been sluggish but peaceful in Chhattisgarh's Naxal-affected Bastar constituency, where people are voting under heavy security.
Today's contest features several top leaders including seven union ministers, among them Kamal Nath, Kapil Sibal and Ajit Singh; then there is former BJP president Nitin Gadkari, retired Army chief General VK Singh and Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar.
(Mega battle today for India's national election: top 10 facts)
Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party or AAP, which is debuting in the national polls, also has prominent leaders in today's battle - Yogendra Yadav, Ashutosh and Shazia Ilmi. (
Delhi: 1.2 crore voters to decide between BJP, Congress and AAP)
In Delhi, over 1.2 crore people are eligible to vote and decide between three main political parties - the BJP, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party - in seven Lok Sabha constituencies. The day-long polling that began at 7 a.m. will go on till 6 p.m. for voters to choose among 150 candidates in Delhi, including 57 independents.
Among high-profile voters in Delhi were Vice President Hamid Ansari, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul and daughter Priyanka, and Arvind Kejriwal.
The Congress, which lost control of Delhi after the assembly polls in December, is trying its best to lure voters, while a confident BJP and the vocal AAP that ruled Delhi for 49 days are being seen as the favourites by political pundits.