More than 17% of the 19.05 lakh voters had cast their ballots in the Nagaon Lok Sabha bypoll in Assam by 9 am on Tuesday, with no untoward incident reported, an official said.
The polling commenced at 7 am and will continue till 5 pm.
The by-election was necessitated as Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi resigned and successfully contested the assembly elections from Dispur on a BJP ticket earlier this year.
"The polling has been peaceful so far, as no untoward incident was reported from any polling station in the eight assembly segments under the Lok Sabha constituency. The voting percentage in the first two hours of polling was 17.68," the official said.
The highest polling of 20.29 per cent has been registered in Laharighat assembly constituency and the lowest 13.93 per cent from Nagaon-Batadraba till 9 am.
BJP candidate Devashis Sharma, a former IAS officer, cast his vote at a polling booth in Mayong Higher Secondary School under Jagiroad assembly constituency, while Congress candidate and former MLA Sibamoni Bora exercised his franchise at the Majgaon Primary School in Nagaon-Batadraba assembly segment.
Sharma told reporters, after exercising his franchise, that it is the voters' choice to elect a suitable candidate.
Bora said that everyone is aware that the BJP and the AIUDF are the ''same entity, but I am confident that the Congress will retain the seat''.
Fifteen candidates are in the fray, but the main contest is expected to be triangular among Sharma, Bora and AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal.
While the bypoll result will not impact the balance of power in Parliament, stakes are high for the major political parties.
The ruling BJP is seeking to expand its base in this Muslim-majority constituency, while the Congress is going all out to retain the seat by keeping its minority support base intact.
The AIUDF, the third prominent party in the fray, is fighting to maintain its influence after it was reduced to two MLAs from 16 in the April assembly election.
The district administration has made elaborate security arrangements, with 624 polling stations identified as sensitive, another official said.
A total of 19.05 lakh voters, including 9.43 lakh women and 50 third-gender electors, are eligible to cast their votes at 2,312 polling stations, including five auxiliary booths.
The counting of votes is scheduled for October 9.
(With inputs from PTI)
