Live Lok Sabha phase 5 elections: 61% turn out recorded till 6:30pm; West Bengal leads with 74%, Jharkhand 64%

Total voter turnout till 6:30pm: 61.03%

Bihar - 57.76%

Jammu and Kashmir - 17.07%

Madhya Pradesh - 63.47%

Rajasthan - 63.14%

Uttar Pradesh - 53.41%

West Bengal - 74.06%

Jharkhand - 64.03%

Jammu & Kashmir: A petrol bomb was hurled at a polling station in south Kashmir’s Shopian today. No loss of life or injuries reported. 

Due to cyclone Fani, Election Commission of India (ECI) has extended the completion of the elections in Patkura assembly constituency in Odisha by 60 days. Earlier, ECI had announced May 19 as the polling date for Patkura Assembly Constituency after the demise of BJD candidate Bed Prakash Agarwalla.

50 per cent voting till 1pm in repoll in 5 booths in Andhra Pradesh

Close to 50 per cent polling was recorded in five polling booths in Andhra Pradesh, till 1 pm Monday, where a re-poll was being conducted.

Braving the heat wave, voters queued up at the five polling booths and cast their votes in good numbers.

In all 49.64 per cent votes were polled in the five polling booths in three districts, Election Commission officials here said.

The re-poll had been ordered in view of technical glitches in the electronic voting machines in these polling booths.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni on his way to cast his vote at a polling booth in Jawahar Vidya Mandir in Ranchi, Jharkhand.

Total voter turnout till 2pm: 40.75%

Bihar - 32.27%

Jammu and Kashmir - 11.35%

Madhya Pradesh - 43.85%

Rajasthan - 42.77%

Uttar Pradesh - 35.15%

West Bengal - 50.78%

Jharkhand - 45.98%

Narsinghpur, Madhya Pradesh: Actor Ashutosh Rana after casting his vote at polling booth number 105 in Gadarwara.

Smriti Irani: I tweeted an alert to administration and EC(alleging booth capturing in Amethi), hope they take action. People of the country have to decide whether this kind of politics of Rahul Gandhi should be punished or not.

Polls in Uttar Pradesh

Nearly 23 per cent turnout was recorded Monday in the first four hours of polling in 14 Lok Sabha seats of UP where Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi are in the fray.

Among early voters in the state capital included Home Minister Singh, BSP supremo Mayawati, Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma, BSP General Secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, DGP OP Singh and Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar.

Election officials here said polling was going on smoothly, barring some complaints of EVM malfunctioning, which were attended to immediately.

Union minister and the BJP's Amethi candidate Smriti Irani alleged that Congress president Rahul Gandhi was "ensuring booth capturing" in the constituency.

Polling in Madhya Pradesh

An average 29.76 per cent polling was recorded till noon in seven Lok Sabha seats of Madhya Pradesh on Monday, an election official said.

Polling was underway since 7 am in the seven constituencies - Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna, Rewa, Hoshangabad and Betul.

Long queues of voters were seen at some polling booths, the official said.

Voting figures till noon were as follows: Tikamgarh 28.81 per cent, Damoh- 28.23 per cent, Khajuraho- 29.73 per cent, Satna- 28.25 per cent, Rewa- 28.13 per cent, Hoshangabad- 31.14 per cent and Betul- 33.14 per cent.

All these seats are currently held by the BJP.

Total voter turnout till 1pm: 29.74%

Bihar - 22.18%

Jammu and Kashmir - 6.47%

Madhya Pradesh - 30.88%

Rajasthan - 32.16%

Uttar Pradesh - 25.68%

West Bengal - 37.36%

Jharkhand - 33.65%

Polling in Jharkhand

Jharkhand on Monday recorded 29.56 per cent voter turnout in the first four hours of polling for four parliamentary constituencies, an official said.

Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Koderma and Khuti recorded 30.059 per cent, 29.05 per cent, 30.80 per cent and 27.21 per cent voter turnout, respectively till 11 am, the Election Commission data showed.

Voting for the second phase of Lok Sabha elections in the state started at 7 am and will end at 4 pm.

Polls in Rajasthan 

Nearly 30 per cent turnout was recorded in the first four hours of polling on Monday in 12 Lok Sabha seats of Rajasthan where two former Olympians are among the 124 candidates in fray.

The maximum voter turnout of 31.93 per cent was in Ganganagar (SC) seat while Nagaur, Dausa, Churu and Alwar registered 30.34, 30.04, 30.02 and 30.01 per cent voting.

Polling began at 7 am in Ganganagar, Bikaner, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jaipur rural, Jaipur, Alwar, Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur, Dausa and Nagaur.

Total voter turnout till 12pm: 27%

Bihar - 20.74%

Jammu and Kashmir - 6.09%

Madhya Pradesh - 29.76%

Rajasthan - 29.40%

Uttar Pradesh - 22.96%

West Bengal - 33.64%

Jharkhand - 29.49%

Total voter turnout till 11am: 16.60%

Bihar - 15.35%

Jammu and Kashmir - 3.66%

Madhya Pradesh - 14.87%

Rajasthan - 16.80%

Uttar Pradesh - 16.09%

West Bengal - 20.61%

Jharkhand - 18.09%

Unrest in Barrackpore, West Bengal 

Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Barrackpore Arjun Singh on Monday alleged that he was attacked and sustained injuries after he was attacked by supporters of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress near a village here.

"I was attacked by TMC goons while I was trying to talk with voters. It was a planned attack and I will report the matter to the Election Commission. TMC's hooligans are running unchecked in the state, my bleeding mouth is a proof of it," Singh said talking to reporters.

Total voter turnout till 10am: 12.35%

Bihar - 11.51%

Jammu and Kashmir - 0.97%

Madhya Pradesh - 12.54%

Rajasthan - 14.08%

Uttar Pradesh - 9.86%

West Bengal - 15.14%

Jharkhand - 13.46%

Terrorists attack polling station in J&K's Pulwama

Terrorists lobbed a grenade towards a polling station in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir where polling is underway for the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency, police said.

A grenade was lobbed towards Rohmoo polling station in Pulwama but there were no reports of any casualties in the blast, a police official said.

He said security forces have cordoned off the area.

This was the first militant attack on a polling station in this Lok Sabha election in Jammu and Kashmir.

Minor glitches reported in Madhya Pradesh

Polling was underway on Monday in seven Lok Sabha seats of Madhya Pradesh with minor EVM glitches being reported at some booths, an official said.

"Polling is going on peacefully across the seven constituencies. Minor issues related to EVMs were reported at some places but they were sorted out," state's chief electoral officer V L Kantha Rao told PTI.

Total 15,240 polling booths have been set up across the seven constituencies - Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna, Rewa, Hoshangabad and Betul - where 1.19 crore people, including 18,822 service voters, are eligible to exercise their franchise.

All these seats located in the state's Bundelkhand region are currently held by the BJP.

Wondering who's your candidate or how to use EVMs? Google Doodle answers queries tied to phase V polling of Lok Sabha polls. Read here

BSP Chief Mayawati casts her vote at a polling booth in City Montessori Inter College in Lucknow.

Rajasthan votes

Here, a total of 134 candidates are in the fray on these seats which include 12 women while around 2.30 crore voters are using their right to vote, said Chief Electoral Officer Kumar.

The parliamentary constituencies to witness voting include Shri Ganganagar with 19.41 lakh voters, Bikaner 18.49 lakh voters, Churu - 20.10 lakh, Jhunjhunu 19.8 lakh, Sikar - 20.24 lakh. Jaipur Rural 19.43 lakh, Jaipur 21.25 lakh, Alwar 18.73 lakh, Bharatpur 19.34 lakh, Karauli Dholpur 18.5 lakh, Dausa 17.26 and Nagaur 19.24 lakh. 

Polling is being held in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 12 in Rajasthan, seven seats each in West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, five in Bihar and four in Jharkhand.

In Jammu and Kashmir, polling will take place in Ladakh constituency and Pulwama and Shopian districts of Anantnag seat.

The stakes are high for the ruling BJP and its allies as it had swept 40 of these seats in 2014, leaving just two for the Congress and the rest for other opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress (seven).

With this phase, election will be over in 424 seats and polling in the remaining 118 seats will be held on May 12 and 19.

Home Minister and Lucknow BJP Candidate Rajnath Singh casts his vote at  polling booth 333 in Scholars' Home School. 

Union Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and his wife Gayatri Rathore arrive at a polling station in Jaipur to cast their vote.

Rathore is in a contest with Congress' Krishna Poonia from Jaipur Rural. 

In the last Lok Sabha polls, Rathore had defeated Congress' CP Joshi by over 3 lakh votes. 

Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Union Minister Smriti Irani are in a tough fight for the Amethi Lok Sabha seat which goes to polls in Uttar Pradesh today.

One of the key constituencies in today's contest is Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh is the BJP's candidate from the seat, Pramod Krishnam is fighting on a Congress ticket, and Poonam Sinha is SP-BSP-RLD's candidate for the Lok Sabha constituency. 

Hazaribagh, Jharkhand: Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha and wife Nilima Sinha arrive at a polling booth to cast vote for Lok Sabha elections 2019. His son and Union Minister Jayant Sinha is contesting against Congress' Gopal Sahu and CPI's Bhubneshwar Prasad Mehta from the constituency.

Polling booths opened at 7am today as voting got underway for the fifth phase in the Lok Sabha elections. There are 51 constituencies going to the polls today across seven states which include Uttar Pradesh (14 seats), Rajasthan (12 seats) Madhya Pradesh (7 seats), West Bengal (7 seats) Bihar (5 seats) Jharkhand (4 seats) and Pulwama, Ladakh and Shopian district in Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir.

There are 674 candidates in the fray with several big guns whose fate will be decided today including Union minister Rajnath Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Smriti Irani who have been involved in a high decibel poll campaign at Amethi.

The Election Commission has made elaborate security arrangements with police and paramilitary personnel manning the 94,000 polling booths across the country. There are at least 9 crore voters who will be exercising their franchise in the fifth phase.

Polling will be conducted from 7am till 6pm in the evening.

The fifth phase will cover 424 constituencies with another 118 remaining for the sixth and seventh phase due to take place on May 12th and May 19th. The seven-phase election began on April 11th.

The seven phases will cover 542 constituencies except Vellore in Tamil Nadu which has been cancelled following excess use of money power. 

Results of the elections will be declared on May 23rd.