LS polls: Uttarakhand registers 62 pc polling for 5 Lok Sabha seats

Updates: 8:00 pm: Uttarakhand registers 62 pc polling for 5 Lok Sabha seats, according to Election Commission.

4:38 pm: 44 per cent voters exercise their franchise till 3 pm in the hill state.

1:50 pm: 31.79 per cent voting recorded till 1 pm.

1:15 pm: 27 per cent voter turnout till 11 am. The voting percentage in Haridwar is 34 per cent

10:05 am: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat sounded confident of his party's victory. Rawat says, "We will definitely win. I have faith in my work and in the people of Uttarakhand. We have been successful in presenting our agenda to the people very clearly."

9:20 am: Long queues at polling booths. Yoga teacher Baba Ramdev has to wait for 45 minutes to cast his vote. Ramdev appealed to people to vote. "I would appeal all to first come and vote and then do anything else. Come and vote for the nation," he says.

Dehradun: Polling is underway for the five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand on Wednesday with voters in large numbers turning up at the polling stations to cast their votes.

Long queues of men and women were seen outside polling stations in different parts of the state as polling began at 7 am amid elaborate security arrangements.

Though the voter turnout is substantial already, it is likely to increase as the day advances, election officials here said.

A total of 71.29 lakh voters across the state are likely to exercise their voting rights to seal the fate of 74 candidates including three former BJP chief ministers from the five seats of Pauri-Garhwal, Tehri, Nainital, Almora and Haridwar.

Elaborate arrangements have been made to conduct free and fair polling across the state with the deployment of 48,122 poll personnel on the state's 10,094 booths, election officials said.

The 48,122 polling personnel deployed on the booths include 11,484 presiding officers and 36,638 polling officials, the state election officer informed, adding that 711 micro observers have also been deployed to ensure free and fair poll.

Security has been tightened across the state to conduct peaceful polling with the deployment of 76 gazetted police officials, 122 inspectors, 759 sub-inspectors, 1,531 head constables, 11,225 constables, 11,245 homeguards, 5,409 gram prahris, chowkidars and forest guards besides 21 companies of the Provincial Armed Constabulary and 56 companies of central police forces, election officials said.

Some high profile candidates trying their fate in these elections are three former BJP chief ministers Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri, Bhagat Singh Koshiyari and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank besides Chief Minister Harish Rawat's wife Renuka, former chief minister Vjay Bahuguna's son Saket and daughter-in-law of erstwhile Tehri royal family Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah.

BJP heavyweight Khanduri is pitted against Cabinet minister and Congress MLA from Ruydraprayag Assembly constituency Harak Singh Rawat in Pauri-Garhwal Lok Sabha seat.

Former chief minister Koshiyari is taking on sitting Congress MP KC Singh Baba in Nainital from where AAP's Balbir Singh Cheema and BSP's Laik Ahmed are also trying their luck.

Nishank, also a former chief minister, is pitted against Harish Rawat's wife Renuka in Haridwar from where AAP nominee and the country's first woman DGP Kanchan Chaudhry Bhattacharya is also in the fray.

Former chief minister Bahuguna's son Saket is pitted once again against sitting BJP MP Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah in Tehri to whom he had lost by more than 20,000 votes in 2012 bypoll to the seat.

In Almora sitting Congress MP Pradeeep Tamta is pitted against BJP's Ajay Tamta.

In most of the seats Opposition BJP and the ruling Congress appear to be locked in a straight contest. While the BJP is banking primarily on what it calls a Narendra Modi wave for victory, the Congress is trying to make the most of chief minister Harish Rawat's development agenda in the calamity-hit state to tilt the scales in its favour amid fears of an anti-incumbency wave countrywide.

However, in Haridwar and Nainital seats the AAP, BSP and SP are trying hard to make the contest three-cornered.

(With additional information from PTI)