13.34 pe cent polling in U'khand till 9 am

The five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand saw 13.34 per cent voter turnout till 9 am on Thursday, an official said.

The fate of 52 candidates will be decided by over 78 lakh voters of the state, where all the five seats -- Tehri, Pauri, Haridwar, Almora and Nainital -- are being held by the BJP.

The saffron party is locked in straight contests with the Congress on all seats.

Polling began at 7 am. Of the 78,56,268 voters in Uttarakhand, 3,71,220 are women and 259 belong to the third gender, Chief Electoral Officer Saujanya said, adding till 9 am the voter turnout was 13.34 per cent.

High-profile candidates in the fray are ex-chief minister Harish Rawat who takes on state BJP chief Ajay Bhatt in Nainital, ex-CM Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank who faces Congress's Ambrish Kumar in Haridwar, BJP national secretary Tirath Singh Rawat is up against B C Khanduri's son Manish in Pauri and sitting MPs Ajay Tamta (Lok Sabha) and Pradeep Tamta (Rajya Sabha) in Almora.