High voter turnout marked polling in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections Thursday covering 95 constituencies in 11 states and Puducherry, with both the Union territory and Manipur clocking a percentage of 80.
Barring Maharashtra, the poll percentage in rest of thestates was in excess of 60 while in Puducherry it was 80.47.
Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said inDelhi that the overall turnout in the second phase was 66 per cent.
Officials said the figures are likely to go up as there aremany people in queues even after the scheduled timing for voting elapsed.
Except for a few sporadic incidents of violence in WestBengal and Manipur and EVM glitches in some seats, polling was by and largepeaceful.
Tamil Nadu registered 63.73 per cent polling for the 38 LokSabha seats and 67.08 per cent in bypolls to 18 assembly constituencies. InMadurai, polling took place till 8 PM in view of the local temple festival.
Paramilitary forces had to open fire near Arakkonam todisperse crowds.
An estimated 61.84 per cent turnout was reported in the 14Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, which is witnessing a direct contest between theruling Congress-JD(S) alliance and the BJP.
Dakshina Kannada recorded the highest turnout of about 72.97per cent, while the lowest was reported in Bangalore Central constituency with45.34 per cent, poll officials said.
Puducherry registered 80.5 per cent polling in the electionto the lone Lok Sabha seat while in the by-election to the Thattanchavadyassembly segment, 76 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise.
Srinagar, which in 2014 witnessed the lowest voter turnoutin the country at 25.86 per cent, saw 12.43 per cent polling, with highest 17.1per cent recorded in Shia-dominated Budgam district till 3 pm.
Polling was also held in 10 seats in Maharashtra, eight inUttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarhand West Bengal, and one seat in Manipur besides 35 assembly constituencies inOdisha.
Polling in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore LS seat was cancelledTuesday by the Election Commission following recovery of cash allegedly from anassociate of a DMK leader recently.
The EC also announced postponement of polling in Tripura(East) Lok Sabha seat to the third phase on April 23, saying the prevailinglaw-and-order situation there is not conducive for holding free and fair polls.
Isolated incidents of violence, road blockades, bombings andpolice firing marred polling in the three Lok Sabha constituencies in WestBengal with 76 per cent of voter turnout recorded.
Police fired in the air and burst tear gas shells to controla mob, who threw stones at them in Raiganj Lok Sabha constituency in WestBengal. Bombs were also hurled by unknown miscreants in Chopra area, a seniorEC official said.
A reporter and a camera person of a local news channel wereallegedly manhandled when they went to cover polling at Kataphulbari in Raiganjconstituency.
CPI (M) candidate from Raiganj, Md Salim, claimed his carwas attacked by unknown persons when he went to a polling booth at Islampur.
Special Police Observer Vivek Dubey, however, described thevoting as “more or less peaceful” with a few isolated incidentsreported from places in the three seats.
In Manipur, voting was stalled in two polling booths of theInner Manipur Lok Sabha constituency after violence broke out over allegedproxy voting and dispute among election agents.
In one of the booths at Kiyamgei Muslim Makha locality inImphal East district, unidentified men stormed into a polling station around11.30 am and broke EVMs and VVPATs, claiming that “proxy voting” wasbeing carried out in the station, Chief Electoral Officer PK Singh said.
In the other booth in the same area, a scuffle broke outbetween the polling agents of opposing political parties around 3pm, derailingthe voting process.
Sources in the election office said that re-polling waslikely in the two booths.
An average 57.22 per cent polling was recorded till 5 pm in10 constituencies of Maharashtra.
Around 69 per cent polling was recorded in Chhattisgarh’sthree Lok Sabha seats, all having Naxal presence, amid tight security.
According to police, except for an IED blast triggered byMaoists in Mohla-Manpur assembly segment of Rajnandgaon Lok Sabha constituency,no other untoward incident was reported in the poll-bound areas.
About 64 per cent voters exercised their franchise in fiveOdisha Lok Sabha and 35 assembly seats, some of them in Naxal-affected areas.
In Assam, Nowgong recorded the state’s highest polling of75.71 per cent, followed by Mangaldoi and Silchar with 75.07 per cent and 71.79per cent respectively. In Karimganj, the figure was 71.41 per cent andAutonomous District witnessed the lowest voting at 69.51 per cent.
The five seats in Bihar saw an estimated 62.52 per centvoting.
The Election Commission put the overall voter turnout inUttar Pradesh at 62.30 per cent.
Lok Sabha polls are being held in seven-phases for 543 seats on April 11, April 18, April 23, April 29, May 6, May 12 and May 19, and counting will be on May 23.