High turnout in 8th phase of polling, 1 killed in Bihar

Notable among the 72 nominees are nine-time MP CPI(M)'s Basudeb Acharia facing the challenge of actress Moonmoon Sen of Trinamool Congress from Bankura, singer Babul Suprio of BJP from Asansol and another actress of yesteryears Sandhya Roy of Trinamool Congress from Midnapore.

In Bihar, high-profile constituencies Saran and Hajipur, where Paswan is in fray, recorded 56 per cent turnout each, Sheohar registered 55.5 per cent voting, Sitamarhi 54 per cent, Muzaffarpur 61.92 per cent and Maharajganj 53 per cent, Two seats in Himachal Pradesh, one of them being contested in by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh's wife Pratibha Singh, witnessed 65 percent polling closely followed by 62 per cent in the four seats of Uttarakhand.

Two seats in Jammu and Kashmir registered a turnout of close to 50 per cent. Baramulla Lok sabha seat, where several incidents of militant violence have been reported since yesterday and separatists gave a poll boycott call, recorded a turnout of 39.6 per cent.