Josh is at the peak, says union minister Mahesh Sharma

Voting began for eight key Lok Sabha seats in western Uttar Pradesh on Thursday in the first phase of the seven-phased elections.

A total of around 1.5 crore voters from Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Meerut, Baghpat, Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar started polling at 7 a.m. and will continue till 5 p.m.

People were seen queuing up outside polling stations way ahead of the process kicking off. Three Union Ministers -- Gen V.K. Singh (Ghaziabad), Satyapal Singh (Baghpat) and Mahesh Sharma (Gautam Buddha Nagar) are in the fray as is Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh (Muzaffarnagar) and his son Jayant Chaudhary (Bagpat).