Lok Sabha elections: Voting underway in Bihar; 8% voter turnout till 9 am

Voting was underway for four of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar in the first of the seven-phased polling in the state.

New Delhi: As the voting for the first phase of Lok Sabha Elections in the nation is underway, people in 18 states and 2 union territories will cast their votes in ninety one constituencies in the first phase. Thousands of voters left their homes early morning as the polling began at 7 am. Though thousands of voters can be seen leaving with the elderly and their entire families to cast their votes across the country, 8% voters turned up to cast their votes in Bihar, where the poling is taking place in 7 phases. States going to polls on Thursday, April 11 are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Sikkim, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, and UTs Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep. Voting was underway for four of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar in the first of the seven-phased polling in the state. About 70 lakh voters are eligible to decide the fate of 44 candidates in the first round of polling.

According to officials of the state Election Commission here, more than 41,000 security personnel have been deployed in the Maoist affected Gaya, Aurangabad, Jamui and Nawada parliamentary constituencies. Three helicopters have been requisitioned to provide air cover to security forces during polls. "In the initial first one and a half hours of voting, people were seen standing before polling booths. It is a slow start but polling will pick up in next three hours," the officials said. However, there are reports of problems in EVM machines at several booths in Gaya, Nawada and Jamui seats. So far, there were no reports of violence from the four constituencies.