Lok Sabha election: Rajasthan registers 13.74 per cent polling in initial hours

JAIPUR: 13.74 per cent voting was registered during the initial hours today on the first polling day of Lok Sabha election in 20 out of 25 parliamentary seats in Rajasthan.

The polling began at 7 am peacefully and an average of 13.74 per cent of close to 3.48 crore votes were polled till 10 am, according to election officials.

Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje, cast her vote at the polling station set up in Topkhana school in Jhalawar.

"I am expecting very good results. We set a mission 25 to win all the parliamentary constituencies in Rajasthan and I hope that we should win all constituencies," Raje told reporters here.

She said that UPA government has betrayed people and voters know it hence the results would in the favour of the party.

Ganganagar (SC) seat registered highest voter turn out of 20.76 per cent whereas Banswara, Pali, Jhalawar Baran and Udaipur (ST) recorded 19.35, 15.97, 15.59 and 15.65 per cent voting respectively.

Polling in Jodhpur, where the contest is mainly between Congress candidate and Union minister Chandresh Kumari and BJP candidate Gajendra Singh, was lowest at 8.45 per cent in the initial hours.

Altogether 239 candidates including 17 women are in the fray in the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in the first phase.

38, 835 polling stations have been set up in the first phase and 5942 among them are critical polling stations.

The 20 LS constituencies where polling is going on are: Ganganagar, Bikaner, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jaipur Rural, Jaipur, Ajmer, Nagaur, Pali, Jodhpur, Barmer, Jalore, Udaipur, Banswara, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand, Bhilwara, Kota, and Jhalawar-Baran.