Brisk and smooth polling in Uttarakhand

Brisk polling was seen at most polling stations of Uttarakhand where balloting for all its five Lok Sabha constituencies is taking place Wednesday, officials said.

The voters lined up at the polling booths in the early hours of balloting and nearly 15 percent of them cast their ballot till 9 a.m., a poll official said.

"Polling has been peaceful and has been more or less smooth, apart from some minor glitches at the start when some electronic voting machines (EVMs) malfunctioned and were quickly replaced," the official added.

No untoward incident has been reported yet.

As many as 74 candidates are in the fray in the five constituencies.

In Hardwar, the Congress has fielded Renuka Rawat, wife of Chief Minister Harish Rawat, against former chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Harish Rawat won from Hardwar in 2009 and served as union minister for water resources but resigned earlier this year after being appointed the chief minister.

BJP candidate and former chief minister Maj. Gen. (retd) B.C. Khanduri is pitted against Harak Singh Rawat of the Congress in Garhwal.

Saket Bahuguna, son of former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, will fight for the Congress from Tehri Garhwal constituency against Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah of the BJP.

In 2009, the Congress had bagged all five seats.