12% polling recorded in Jharkhand (9 a.m.)

Jharkhand recorded 12 per cent polling till 9 a.m. on Monday for the state's three Maoist-affected Lok Sabha seats, according to Election Commission (EC) data.

Voting that began at 7 a.m. across 6,072 polling station in the Lohardagga, Chatra and Palamau seats, will end at 4 p.m.

The EC data showed that Chatra witnessed 12.10 per cent voting, Lohardagga 11.30 per cent and Palamau 12.38 per cent.

Polling started an hour late at a polling booth of Lohardagga due to a technical snag in an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM).

Of the 6,072 polling booths, more than 40 per cent were categorised are either sensitive or over sensitive. More than 140 companies of para-military forces have been deployed.

Fate of 59 candidates will be decided by of 45,26,691 voters.

In first phase polling is taking place on three Lok Sabha seats -- Lohardagga, Chatra and Palamau.

In the 2014 polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won all the three seats.

In Chatra, there is triangular fight among BJP's Sunil Singh, Congress' Manoj Yadav and the Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) Subhash Yadav.

While in Lohardagga, Sudarshan Bhagat of the BJP will take on Congress' Sukhdeo Bhagat.

In Palamau, the main battle is between V.D. Ram of the BJP and the RJD's Ghuran Ram.

--IANS

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