Moderate to heavy polling in Maha, Haryana, Arunachal

Moderate to heavy polling was today registered in the Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh amid sporadic incidents of violence in which a polling agent was killed and Naxals attacked a patrol party and a booth.

While an estimated 70 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise in Arunachal Pradesh, the turnout was around 50 per cent in Haryana and about 40 per cent in Maharashtra till about 1500 hrs, poll officials said.

The 48-year-old polling agent, Jyoti Ram, was killed in a clash between supporters of Congress nominee Dillu Ram and Independent candidate Kulwant Bazigar in Gulha assembly constituency in Haryana's Kaithal district, police said. He represented Bazigar.

In Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district where 17 policemen were shot dead by the Maoists on October 8, naxalites opened fire at a patrol party near Kasansur in Aheri block shortly before polling commenced.