The first phase of voting for the 18th Lok Sabha elections which was held in 21 states and Union territories on April 19.

Nearly 64% voter turnout was recorded pm across the states. Seats in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep and Puducherry go to polls today.

More than 16.63 crore voters, which include over eight crore men and women each, will cast their vote at nearly 2 lakh polling stations.

Minor EVM glitches were reported at some booths in Tamil Nadu, Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Assam.

West Bengal recorded a turnout of 66.34% till 3 p.m. However, polling was marred by violence in the Cooch Behar seat. Both the TMC and the BJP clashed and lodged 80 and 39 complaints against each other respectively related to poll violence, voter intimidation, and assaults on poll agents, sources from both parties said.

In strife-torn Manipur, around 63.03% of the over 15.44 lakh voters exercised their franchise till 3 p.m. An altercation broke out between locals and unidentified persons in Thongju Assembly constituency under the Inner Manipur Lok Sabha seat.

In Chhattisgarh, more than 58% of the electorate cast their votes in the first four hours of polling in the Naxal-hit Bastar Lok Sabha constituency where an assistant commandant of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by Naxalites went off in Bijapur district.

Meanwhile, Nagaland witnessed a zero voter turnout in 6 districts as polling officials waited for nine hours in booths, but none of the 4 lakh voters turned up following a shutdown call given by an organisation to press for its demand for ‘Frontier Nagaland Territory’ (FNT).