Nearly 35 percent polling in Haryana

Chandigarh, April 10 (IANS) Up to 35 percent of Haryana's nearly 1.61 crore electorate exercised their franchise during the first six hours of voting Thursday for the 10 Lok Sabha seats from the state, officials here said.

Long queues could be seen at a number of polling stations across Haryana.

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 in the state's 10 Lok Sabha constituencies.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his family members cast their vote in Rohtak town while billionaire-industrialist MP Naveen Jindal cast his vote in Kurukshetra town.

In Chandigarh, enthusiastic voters began queuing up in the first hour after the commencement of polling at 7 a.m. Nearly 30 percent of Chandigarh's electorate of 6.13 lakh cast their vote till 1 p.m. to decide the fate of 17 candidates. Chandigarh has only one Lok Sabha seat.

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 the 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 7 a.m., the official time for balloting to begin.

Chandigarh 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.