New Delhi, April 19: The first of the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls on Friday remained largely peaceful with voter turnout exceeding 60% at 7 in the evening.

With this, the fate of as many as 1,625 candidates across 21 states and union territories (UTs) have been locked in EVMs (electronic voting machines).

After the polling began today, sporadic incidents of violence were reported from West Bengal and strife-torn Manipur.

In Tripura, where voting took place for one seat, the vote percentage was the highest at 79.90%. This was followed by West Bengal (three seats), where voter turnout was recorded at 77.57%.

At 47.49%, voter turnout was the lowest in Bihar where four seats were up for grabs.

“The voting percentage is likely to go upwards when reports from all polling stations are obtained as polling is scheduled till 6 PM in many constituencies. Also, voters reaching the polling stations till the end of polling hour are allowed to cast their vote,” Election Commission of India (ECI) said in a press note.

The poll body noted that final figures of voter turnout will be known by Saturday after scrutiny of form 17A.

In phase-I of the general election, polling has been completed for 10 states/UTs to elect 18th Lok Sabha along with polling for state legislative assemblies of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in the northeastern part of the country.

As many as 102 parliamentary constituencies went to polls today. States including Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territories of Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep completed their voting process.

States which saw voting on a few parliamentary constituencies included West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Voting on the remaining seats would be held in subsequent phases.

Remaining six phases of polls will continue till 1st of June with around 97 crore voters lined up to vote. Counting of votes is scheduled on June 4, 2024.

The counting of votes for the Assembly polls in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim will be on June 2.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP is seeking a third straight term and forming the government at the Centre, opposition parties under the banner of Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) are seeking to upstage the ruling party.

UNI