Over 80 percent voting in Puducherry

Puducherry, May 16 (IANS) Over 7.2 lakh voters or 80 percent of Puducherry'e electorate have cast their ballots so far in polling on Monday to elect the union territory's 30-member assembly, the Election Commission (EC) said.

The balloting picked up pace in the day after a sluggish start with just over 10 percent turnout being seen in the first two hours after polling centres opened at 7 a.m. Polling will end at 6 p.m.

There are over 9.4 lakh voters in Puducherry, and a total of 344 candidates are in the fray.

In 2011 assembly elections, the polling percentage was 85.52 percent out of over 8.10 lakh voters.

The main fight is between the Congress-DMK combine and the ruling All India NR Congress (AINRC), while the AIADMK, the ruling party in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, is going it alone.