 "Assembly polls: 25% turnout in Haryana till 11 am")
The Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections saw brisk voting in the first few hours.
In Haryana, over 25% of the 1.63 crore eligible voters had exercised their franchise till 11 am as polling was on at a brisk pace in the multi-cornered contest.
Two persons were injured in firing during a clash between two groups in Sirsa, police said, adding they were investigating the incident.
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Election officials said that the polling was slow during the first two hours, but gradually picked up pace. 1,351 candidates, including 116 women, are contesting on 90 seats in the state. The state has over 1.63 crore voters, including 87.37 lakh women.
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hood was among the prominent people who cast their vote early this morning.
Voting will continue till 6 pm. Counting of votes is on October 19.
Maharashtra, on the other hand, recorded 7.31% turnout in the first two hours. The estimated polling in some districts was: Aurangabad 10%, Beed 9%, Solapur 8%, Kolhapur 10%, Hingoli 8.5%, Osmanabad 9%, Nashik 7%, and Parbhani 7.5%.
Among the early voters were NCP's Ajit Pawar, former deputy chief minister, MP Supriya Sule and Pratibha Pawar in Baramati, Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Vinod Tawde in Mumbai and BJP's Pankaja Munde in Beed, where by-election is also being held for Lok Sabha seat following the death of her father Gopinath Munde in a road accident.
Among Bollywood celebrities Rekha and Abhishek Bachchan cast their votes in the morning.
4,119 candidates are in the electoral fray, including to 276 women in the state with 8.35 crore voters eligible to exercise their right to franchise.
The riveting contest in the two states is being seen as the first major test of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity after the Lok Sabha polls.
Maharashtra's established political formations -- Shiv Sena-BJP and Cong-NCP -- split ahead of the polls and the parties are contesting alone after 15 years. Congress and NCP had ruled the state for 15 years from 1999.
In Haryana too, the BJP junked its allies and is hoping to get majority on its own to dislodge Congress that has been ruling the state for the last 10 years.