More than a quarter vote in Lakshadweep

Thiruvananthapuram, April 10 (IANS) More than a quarter of the electorate voted in the first four hours in Lakshadweep for the lone Lok Sabha seat, officials said.

India's smallest union territory Lakshadweep is a group of 36 islands, and has an electorate of less than 50,000.

"There was 26.19 percent voting till 11 a.m.," an official of the Lakshadweep chief electoral officer told IANS, adding that the balloting was peaceful.

Just six candidates are in the fray.

Forty-four polling booths were set up for the voting that began at 7 a.m., officials added.

The Congress has dominated Lakshadweep ever since its first Lok Sabha elections in 1967, except for the 2004 polls when the Janata Dal (United) won.

Sitting Congress MP Hamdullah Sayeed, 31, is the youngest member of the 15th Lok Sabha.

It is for the first time that Communist Party of India is fielding a candidate - Najmudheen C.T. - from this Scheduled Tribes reserved constituency.

The remaining five candidates in the fray are: Abdul Muneer of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, Mohammed Faizal P.P. of the National Congress Party, M.P. Sayed Mohammed Koya of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Hamdullah Sayeed of the Congress, and Samajwadi Party's Komalam Koya.