Nearly 70 per cent polling was recorded in the Uttarakhand Assembly elections, which sealed the fate of 788 candidates including Chief Minister B C Khanduri and state Congress president Yashpal Arya.
The polling to elect 70 legislators to the state Assembly largely remained "incident-free".
About 70 per cent of the 63 lakh voters exercised their franchise till the end of polling at 5PM, state Chief Electoral Officer Radha Raturi told PTI.
The polling, which began on a dull note in the morning, picked up momentum as the day progressed.
Only 10 per cent polling was recorded during the first two hours till 10 AM. However, as the day progressed, the number of voters reaching the polling stations increased.
Tight security arrangements were made for the election, which largely remained incident-free, Raturi said. The counting of votes will take place on March 6.
There are over 63 lakh electorates in the state where the ruling BJP is locked in a close fight with Congress.
Chief Minister B C Khanduri, former Chief Ministers Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Nityanand Swami and N D Tiwari and Assembly Speaker Harbans Kapoor were among the early voters.
Khanduri, who is BJP's chief ministerial candidate, said, "There is a very good response (from the people for the party)... We feel we will form the government comfortably but again it is for the people to decide."
After casting his vote, senior Congress leader Tiwari told reporters that there are bright chances of a change (of power) in the state. "People have seen the government of other party (BJP) in the past five years. I hope that they would now give a chance to Congress," he said.
The elections will also decide the fate of top state leaders including Khanduri from Kotdwar, Nishank from Doiwala, the Leader of the Opposition Harak Singh Rawat from Rudraprayag and Arya from Baajpur seats.
Nearly 70 per cent polling was recorded in the Uttarakhand Assembly elections, which sealed the fate of 788 candidates including Chief Minister B C Khanduri and state Congress president Yashpal Arya.
The polling to elect 70 legislators to the state Assembly largely remained "incident-free".
About 70 per cent of the 63 lakh voters exercised their franchise till the end of polling at 5PM, state Chief Electoral Officer Radha Raturi told PTI.
The polling, which began on a dull note in the morning, picked up momentum as the day progressed.
Only 10 per cent polling was recorded during the first two hours till 10 AM. However, as the day progressed, the number of voters reaching the polling stations increased.
Tight security arrangements were made for the election, which largely remained incident-free, Raturi said. The counting of votes will take place on March 6.
There are over 63 lakh electorates in the state where the ruling BJP is locked in a close fight with Congress.
Chief Minister B C Khanduri, former Chief Ministers Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Nityanand Swami and N D Tiwari and Assembly Speaker Harbans Kapoor were among the early voters.
Khanduri, who is BJP's chief ministerial candidate, said, "There is a very good response (from the people for the party)... We feel we will form the government comfortably but again it is for the people to decide."
After casting his vote, senior Congress leader Tiwari told reporters that there are bright chances of a change (of power) in the state. "People have seen the government of other party (BJP) in the past five years. I hope that they would now give a chance to Congress," he said.
The elections will also decide the fate of top state leaders including Khanduri from Kotdwar, Nishank from Doiwala, the Leader of the Opposition Harak Singh Rawat from Rudraprayag and Arya from Baajpur seats.
Earlier report:
Medium to brisk polling was on Monday recorded till 1500 hours in Uttarakhand, where 788 candidates are trying their luck from 70 Assembly segments.
Only 10 per cent polling was recorded during the first two hours till 1000 hours but as the day progressed, the number of voters reaching the polling stations increased.
"Nearly 50 per cent polling has been recorded till 1400 hours," Uttarakhand Chief Electoral Officer Radha Raturi said.
Tight security arrangements have been made for the polling, which has so far been incident-free, she added.
In most of the polling booths, people are seen queuing up to cast their votes.
Over 63 lakh electorates are expected to exercise their franchise in the elections where the ruling BJP is locked in a close fight against Congress.
Chief Minister B C Khanduri, former Chief Ministers Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Nityanand Swami and N D Tiwari and assembly speaker Harbans Kapoor were among the early voters, who cast their votes in the morning.
The elections will also decide the fate of top state leaders, including Khanduri from Kotdwar, Nishank from Doiwala, the leader of the opposition Harak Singh Rawat from Rudraprayag and PCC chief Yashpal Arya from Baajpur seats.
The polling which began at 0800 hrs would end at 1700 hrs in the evening.
A total of 788 candidates are trying their luck with main contenders BJP and Congress contesting all the 70 seats.
In the outgoing state assembly, the BJP has a strength of 36 members followed by Congress with 20, BSP with 8 and UKD with 3 while there are three independents.
Medium to brisk voting in Punjab, U'khand
Medium to brisk polling was reported from various parts of Punjab and Uttarakhand till midday today in assembly elections which would decide the fate of 1866 candidates in the two states including chief ministerial aspirants Prakash Badal, Amarinder Singh and B C Khanduri.
Polling began on a dull note due to the morning chill in both the states but picked as the day progressed. No untowrd incident was reported during the first four hours of polling, officials said.
"The polling percentage is between 26 to 30 per cent till 12 PM," Punjab's Additional Chief Electoral Officer Raj Kamal Chaudhri said here. The polling is taking place at 19,841 polling stations across 22 districts of Punjab. There are 1078 contestants in the fray for 117 assembly seats.
Talking to reporters before leaving for Patiala, state Congress President Amarinder Singh claimed that Haryana's Sirsa headquartered-sect Dera Sacha Sauda was supporting his party.
"The Dera is supporting Congress. The message (from the Dera) has reached the premis (followers) and they are supporting Congress. This was expected the way Akalis had treated the Dera followers," he said.
Singh claimed there was clear wave in his party's favour.
"We are winning hands down and as I have said we will cross 70 seats".
"People of Punjab want to oust the Akalis. There has been no development and (Deputy Chief Minister and SAD President) Sukhbir Singh Badal is trying to sell dreams to people. No development can be seen on the ground," the Congress Chief ministerial candidate said.
Over 250 contestants including Amarinder Singh, his wife and Union Minister Preneet Kaur, had visited the Dera premises at Sirsa and sought blessings from the sect chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.
After casting his vote in his home constituency Lambi's Badal village, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said that SAD-BJP would comfortably win on the basis of development during the past five years.
In Uttarakhand, about 20-25 per cent polling was recorded in the initial hours, officials said, adding that it has been peaceful so far. 788 candidates are vying for 70 seats in the assembly.
Earlier, the Badals including the Chief Minister and Sukhbir arrived together and cast vote in Badal village.
However, Badal family's estranged relative and chief of People's Party of Punjab, Manpreet Singh Badal, whose party is also contesting the Punjab polls, was the first to arrive to cast vote in Badal village.
In the 2007 polls, the SAD-BJP alliance came to power with SAD winning 49 and BJP 19. Congress had got 44 seats and remaining five seats went to the Independents.
In Uttarakhand, Khanduri, former Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and assembly speaker Harbans Kapoor were among the early voters.
The elections will also decide the fate of top state leaders including Khanduri from Kotdwar, Nishank from Doiwala, the leader of the opposition Harak Singh Rawat from Rudraprayag and PCC chief Yashpal Arya from Baajpur seats.
A total of 788 candidates are trying their luck with main contenders BJP and Congress contesting all the 70 seats.
In the outgoing state assembly, the BJP had a strength of 36 members followed by Congress with 20, BSP with 8 and UKD with 3 while there were three independents.
Poll lull: Voting begins in Punjab, U'khand, morning turn out low
Uttarakhand
Polling for the assembly elections in Uttarakhand to elect 70 legislators began a dull note this morning despite a clear sky.
Till 1000 hours, only 10 per cent polling was recorded, said state chief electorate officer Radha Raturi.
However, the polling was peaceful, she said.
In most of the polling booths, people began queuing up as the day progressed, officials said.
Over 63 lakh voters are expected to exercise their franchise in the elections where the ruling BJP is locked in a close fight against Congress.
The elections will also decide the fate of top state leaders including chief minister B C Khanduri from Kotdwar, former chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank from Doiwala, the leader of opposition Harak Singh Rawat from Rudraprayag and PCC chief Yashpal Arya from Baajpur seats.
The polling which began at 0800 hrs would end at 1700 hrs in the evening.
A total of 788 candidates are trying their luck with main contenders BJP and Congress contesting all the 70 seats.
Punjab
An estimated 10 per cent of around 1.76 crore voters exercised their franchise till 10 AM in Punjab assembly elections today.
The polling remained peaceful in the initial two hours with no reports of violence received, special chief electoral Officer Usha R Sharma said.
She said the polling is likely to pick up as the day advances.
The fate of 1,078 candidates, including two chief ministerial aspirants Parkash Singh Badal and Amarinder Singh in fray for 117 assembly seats, will be sealed today.
The polling is taking place at 19,841 polling stations across 22 districts of Punjab where .
Prominent candidates whose fate would be sealed today include the chief minister from his traditional Lambi assembly seat, his predecessor Amarinder Singh from Patiala city, their sons Sukhbir Singh Badal (Jalalabad) and Raninder Singh (Samana), former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal (Lehra), former Punjab top cop P S Gill (Moga), former principal secretary to the chief minister D S Guru (Bhadaur) and former SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur (Bholath).
A total of 70972, including 225 paramilitary force personnel have been deployed to conduct the elections.
At least 2627 video cameras and 554 digital cameras have been installed at polling booths. Around 203 polling stations are using live web-casting.
Of the polling stations, 2718 have been identified hyper sensitive and 6379 as sensitive.
Ludhiana East (16), Patiala rural (13) and Jalalabad (14) are the assembly constituencies where maximum number of contestants are in the fray. The least number of contestants are in Attari (4).
Out of the 1,078 candidates in fray 417, including 45 women, are Independents. At the last hustings in 2007, after scrutiny and withdrawal there were a total of 1,055 candidates, including 56 women, in fray.
