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56 percent polling in second phase

Barring isolated incidents of violence, an estimated 56 per cent of 143.17 million voters exercised their franchise in the second phase of polling today in eight states for constituting the 13th Lok Sabha and three state assemblies.

Describing the voting as ''practically incident free and generally peaceful,'' deputy election commissioner Subhas Pani told newspersons that Andhra Pradesh and Kerala recorded a turnout of 65 percent, Karnataka 63 percent, Madhya Pradesh 54, Rajasthan 53 percent, Tamil Nadu 52 percent, Maharashtra 50 percent and Jammu and Kashmir 40 percent.

In Maharashtra, a minister was arrested for murder, police opened fire at two places in Andhra Pradesh and one person was stabbed in Kerala during the polling. Snatching of ballot papers and other such incidents took place in some booths in Andhra and Madhya Pradesh.

Polling was held for 15 seats each in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, 20 each in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, 24 in Maharashtra, 14 in Madhya Pradesh, 13 in Karnataka and two in Jammu and Kashmir.

In AP police fired ten rounds after ruling Telegu Desam Party nominee Karanam Balram Murty from Ongole Lok Sabha constituency, along with 200 supporters, allegedly raided seven polling booths in Parchur assembly segment and threw the ballot boxes into the nearby well.

Police also opened fire at Yakutpura area of Hyderabad to disperse Majlis Bachao Tahreek workers who indulged in stone-throwing after miscreants damaged a jeep belonging to a MBT candidate.

Ballot snatching, pouring of water into ballot boxes and damaging of electronic voting machines were also reported in the state. Mustaq Hussain, MBT MLA, was arrested for damaging an electronic voting machine in a booth near Charminar in Hyderabad.

Today's polling completes voting in 268 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats.

In the 294-member AP assembly, polling today was held for 105 seats while in the first phase 84 seats went to the polls.

In Kerala, a BJP worker, Ajith Kumar was seriously injured when he was stabbed by two Marxist workers near a booth at Hosdurg in Kasaragod constituency. Two opposition United Democractic Front activists were injured in a clash with the ruling Left Democratic Front workers over the torching of an election shed of the UDF at Mankulam in Idukki constituency.

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