Nearly 15 percent polling in Chandigarh, Haryana

Chandigarh, April 10 (IANS) Up to 15 percent polling took place in Chandigarh and most parts of Haryana in the first three hours of voting Thursday for 11 Lok Sabha seats. At a number of polling booths, long queues could be seen.

Election officials said that brisk polling is likely to be witnessed at least till 2 p.m. since a number of people have lined up to cast their votes.

Enthusiastic voters began queuing up in the first hour itself in Chandigarh and parts of Haryana as polling booths opened at 7 a.m. Thursday.

Voting is being held for all 10 Lok Sabha seats from Haryana and one seat from Chandigarh.

In Chandigarh, over six lakh voters will decide the fate of 17 candidates.

The big fight in Chandigarh is between former railway minister and Congress leader Pawan Kumar Bansal, who is the sitting MP from the city beautiful, and three women challengers - Kirron Kher of the BJP, Gulkirat Kaur Panag (Gul Panag) of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and Jannat Jahan-ul-Haq of the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Kirron Kher and Gul Panag are celebrity candidates from Mumbai's film industry. Both have lived in Chandigarh earlier.

In Chandigarh's urban polling stations, voters could be seen queuing up even before at 7 a.m., the official time for balloting to begin.

Chandigarh has over 6.13 lakh eligible voters and 519 polling stations. It has over 2.81 lakh women voters while there are over 1.71 lakh young voters in the 20-29 age group.

While Bansal cast his vote in Sector 28, actress Kirron Kher, who has her vote in Mumbai, accompanied her 101-year-old father and other family members to a polling station in Sector 8.

In Haryana, voters were seen lining up at most polling booths since early morning.

Nearly 1.61 crore people, including over 73.8 lakh women, are eligible to vote in Haryana to decide the fate of 230 candidates, including 10 women candidates, who are contesting for the state's 10 Lok Sabha seats.