Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Voter turnout touch 40 percent in 4 hours
New Delhi/IBNS: Forty percent voter turnout has been recorded in the first four hours of voting in 102 seats across the country in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections, media reports said.
The 102 seats are from 21 states and union territories.
Among all states, Tamil Nadu's all 39 seats have gone into polling in the first phase.
Voting is being held in Naxal-infested Bastar that recently saw over 40 Maoists being eliminated in major actions as well as in the ethnic violence-hit Manipur in the first phase which also includes 18 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and 11 for Scheduled tribes, Indian news agency UNI reported.
With the first phase of voting, polling will be over in 10 states.
Polling will be held in Tamil Nadu (39), Mizoram (1), Nagaland (1), Puducherry (1), Sikkim (1), Lakshadweep (1) Uttarakhand (5), Arunachal Pradesh (2), Meghalaya (Shillong and Tura), and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (1) in the first phase.
Bengal reports incidents of violence in first phase of Lok Sabha polls
Several incidents of violence and intimidation have been reported from West Bengal as the Lok Sabha elections began with three seats in the politically-intensified state.
The three seats, which went to polls in the first phase, are Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri, where the state's ruling party Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are in fierce contest.
A BJP booth president was injured in a stone pelting allegedly by TMC supporters in the Chandamari area of Cooch Behar.
BJP workers have been accused of attacking TMC workers in the Sitalkuchi and Chotosalbari gram panchayat areas.
A TMC polling camp was attacked in Sitai, a report by The Indian Express reported.