India today witness Phase-1 of the general elections to the 15th Lok Sabha. Polling began at 7 am and will end at 5 pm.The Election Commission has announced that “all arrangements are in place” to ensure a free and fair poll and to meet any eventuality.

Over 14.31 crore voters are eligible to cast their ballot today in Phase-1 across 1.85 lakh polling stations set up by the Election Commission and secured by tens of thousands of police personnel. Polling will be held in 17 states and 124 of the 543 seats in Parliament will be decided in it. This include one seat in Jammu and Kashmir, 16 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 13 in Bihar, 6 in Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Chhattisgarh and some seats in Orissa, East Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep in the south, and three seats in Maharashtra in the west.

In Andhra Pradesh and Orissa, Assembly elections are also held along with Lok Sabha polls. In Andhra Pradesh 154 (out of 294) Assembly constituencies and in Orissa 70 (out of 147) are going to the polls on Thursday.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad, BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi and Yashwant Sinha and TRS president K Chandrasekar Rao are the prominent leaders whose fate will be decided today.

There are reports of nexal attacks on polling station attempting to disrupt the polls. The Naxals opened fire at polling stations in Latehar in Jharkhand and Mangnar polling station under the Bastar Lok Sabha constituency in Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh and at three places in Naraipur district, in Nellar, Sonarpur and Godavellu. No casualty was reported in the incidents but they have snatched voting machines at two booths in Dantewara.