Nearly 15 per cent turnout was recorded in the first three hours of polling for the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections in eight states and union territories, barring Jammu and Kashmir where it began on a dull note.
A petrol bomb was hurled at a polling booth on the outskirts of Srinagar two hours ahead of polling but no one was injured. Minor skirmishes were reported in Punjab and Haryana while polling elsewhere was by and large peaceful.
Among the early voters were President Pratibha Patil, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, his deputy Sukhbir Singh Badal, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Union Minister Kapil Sibal.
As many as 9.46 crore people are eligible to vote in 85 constituencies in the fourth phase, in which 1,315 candidates including 119 women are in the fray. BJP President Rajnath Singh (Ghaziabad), Congress' Pranab Mukherjee (Jangipur), SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri), RJD supremo Lalu Prasad (Pataliputra) and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah (Srinagar) are the big names contesting in this phase.
While polling for the Srinagar seat began on a dull note, 39-year-old Omar Abdullah said after casting his vote, "People are coming out to vote regardless of the boycott call given by the separatists and this itself is a healthy sign."
Other prominent candidates include Congress' Kapil Sibal (Chandni Chowk), Sachin Pilot (Ajmer), Shekhar Suman (Patna Saheb), Ajay Maken (New Delhi), BJP's Shatrughan Sinha (Patna Saheb), HJC's Bhajan Lal (Hisar) and RLD's Ajit Singh (Baghpat).
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Brisk polling was reported from four of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab including hyper sensitive seats of Bathinda and Patiala. The other nine seats in the state will go to polls in the last phase on May 13.
In Haryana, an estimated 13 per cent voters turned out to exercise their franchise in the first three hours of polling.
In Rajasthan, where elections to all the 25 seats are being held, polling figures varied between 10 and 15 per cent in the initial hours. Since the polls began on April 16, election has been completed to 372 seats of the 545-member Lok Sabha. Elections are held only to 543 seats, as two members are nominated from the Anglo-Indian community.
Elections are also being held in three seats in Bihar, 18 in Uttar Pradesh and 17 in West Bengal where turnout was around 15 per cent.