35 pc voting in Jharkhand till noon

Approximately 35 per cent voting was recorded till 1 pm on Wednesday in the first phase of elections to the 26 assembly seats in Jharkhand.

Adequate security measures were put in place along with air surveillance and no untoward incidents have been reported from anywhere in the Maoist-infested tate so far.

Prominent among the 470 candidates contesting the first phase are former speaker and Congress leader Alamgir Alam, ex-ministers Raghuvar Das, Dulal Bhuiyan (both from the Bharatiya Janata Party) and Aparna Sengupta (All India Forward Block).

It is the second assembly election in Jharkhand after it was carved out from Bihar on November 15, 2000.

The first assembly election was held in 2005, which threw up a hung assembly that saw four governments in as many years, culminating in the imposition of President's Rule.