Ranchi, April 17 (IANS) Jharkhand witnessed around 14 percent polling in the first two hours for six Lok Sabha seats Thursday amid a boycott call given by Maoist guerrillas.
The highest 18 percent polling was registered in Jamshedpur, while the lowest voter turnout was 12 percent in Khuti constituency.
The six seats where polling is taking place are Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Chaibasa, Khuti, Giridih and Hazaribagh. Maoist guerrillas have significant presence in all the six constituencies.
A total of 8,525,179 voters will decide the political fate of 106 candidates in the field.
"The new electors in the age group of 18-19 years are 388,301. The voting will take place at 10,177 polling stations, of which 2,779 are highly sensitive, 3,070 are sensitive," an Election Commission official told IANS.
The commission has appointed 1,946 micro observers to monitor the polling.
Of the total number of the polling booths, 763 have been covered with video cameras, 1,194 with still cameras and 600 through webcasting.
Around 45,000 security personnel drawn from para-military forces, state police, and home guards have been deployed to ensure peaceful polling.
Six choppers also are being used, two of which have been deployed for air surveillance.
Prominent among those whose fate will be decided include seven legislators, former minister and Congress's Ranchi MP Subodh Kant Sahay, Deputy speaker of the Lok Sabha and BJP's sitting MP Karia Munda, and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha's son Jayant Sinha.
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