Polling underway in several states including Tamil Nadu, WB

Chennai: The first phase of Lok Sabha polls begins with voters queuing up at booths in 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu on Friday morning.

Former Telangana and Puducherry Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, senior DMK leader T.R. Baalu, DMK leader and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s sister Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, state BJP president K. Annamalai are among the heavyweights whose fate will be decided by the voters today.

There are 6.23 crore eligible voters in the state. Of which, 3.17 crore are women, 3.06 crore are men.

Of the 950 candidates in the fray from the 39 Lok Sabha constituencies, 874 are men and 76 are women.

A total of 39 general observers, 20 police observers, 58 expenditure observers, and a special expenditure observer have been deployed in Tamil Nadu by the Election Commission of India.

Polling for Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal started on Friday morning under tight security cover.

However, in the first 30 minutes since the polling began, reports of tension had started surfacing from certain pockets in the Cooch Behar constituency, which is under the scanner of the Election Commission of India.

Voters were seen lining up in front of the polling booth in all three constituencies in the early hours.Interacting with the media persons, early voters said that the two reasons that prompted them to reach polling stations early were to avoid the heat as well as the long queues in the latter part of the day.

The polling began with a tragedy at Mathabhanga in Cooch Behar district, where a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan, who was admitted to a hospital, died early Friday morning. The said jawan, identified as Nilesh Kumar Nilu (42), was admitted to a local hospital on Thursday night after he complained of uneasiness. He was a resident of Bihar.

Governor C.V. Ananda Bose on Friday told media persons that he will be keeping a watch on the developments throughout the day from the Peace Room within the premises of the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata.

Polling is continuing in 2,043 booths at Cooch Behar, 1,867 in Alipurduar and 1,904 in Jalpaiguri.

Polling for eight Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttar Pradesh is underway in Saharanpur, Bijnor, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Nagina (reserved), Moradabad, Rampur and Pilibhit, located in nine districts of western Uttar Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa said that 1.43 crore people are eligible to cast their votes in the first phase. Of them, 76.23 lakh are men, 67.14 lakh women and 824 are transgender persons. According to data compiled by political parties, Muslim voters account for 35 to 50 per cent of the electorate in these constituencies.

A total of 14,849 polling booths and 7,689 polling centres have been set up for the first phase of voting.

A total of 80 candidates — 73 men and 7 women — are in the fray in the first phase.

The polling for the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat and the Ramnagar assembly segment, where by-polls are being held, has started under strict security arrangements.

Election officials said that 14.63 lakh voters, including 7.34 lakh women electorate, would decide the fate of nine candidates in the politically important parliamentary seat.

The main contest is expected between former Tripura Chief Minister and BJP candidate Biplab Kumar Deb, and state Congress president Asish Kumar Saha, of the INDIA bloc.

The voting also started simultaneously for the by-election to the Ramnagar Assembly seat, which fell vacant after the demise of sitting BJP MLA Surajit Datta on December 28 last year.

Two candidates, one each of the BJP and the CPI-M, are trying their electoral fortunes in the Ramnagar Assembly by-poll.

Over 20,000 polling personnel would conduct the voting in 1,682 polling stations in the Tripura West Parliamentary constituency.

Voting would continue till 5 p.m. without any interruption.

Alongside, voting for the Nagaland Lok Sabha seat has begun amidst heavy security measures, election officials said.

The voting in 2,342 polling stations, manned by over 11,000 polling staff, would continue till 4 p.m.

Over 13.25 lakh voters, including 6.64 lakh women will decide the electoral fate of three candidates – opposition Congress nominee S Supongmeren Jamir, ruling Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) candidate Chumben Murry and Independent Hayithung Tungoe Lotha.

Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organisation (ENPO) in support of their separate state demand has urged the people to abstain from voting in the six Eastern Nagaland districts – Mon, Tuensang, Longleng, Kiphire, Shamator and Noklak. However, the Election Commission on Thursday sent polling parties for the 738 polling stations in the six districts.

IANS with edits and inputs