Over 36 per cent polling was recorded till 1 pm in the Haryana assembly election on Saturday in which the ruling BJP is eyeing a third term while the Congress seeks a comeback after a decade.
Chief Electoral Officer Pankaj Agarwal said voting was going on peacefully.
He said voting began at 1 pm and a poll percentage of 36.69 was recorded by 1 pm.
Among the top names in the fray are Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, the BJP's Anil Vij and O P Dhankar, the Congress' Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Vinesh Phogat, the INLD's Abhay Singh Chautala and the JJP's Dushyant Chautala.
The BJP, Congress, the INLD-BSP and the JJP-Azad Samaj Party alliances and the Aam Aadmi Party are the key outfits contesting the polls. The Congress has left the Bhiwani seat for its INDIA bloc partner CPI(M), while the BJP has made way in Sirsa for Haryana Lokhit Party chief Gopal Kanda, who is seeking re-election.
A total of 1,031 candidates are in the fray, including 101 women and 464 Independent nominees.
Voting will conclude at 6 pm and counting will be taken up on October 8.
While voting was picking up pace in many districts, it was comparatively slow in Panchkula and Gurugram districts.
Till 1 pm, Ambala recorded a poll percentage of 39.47, Bhiwani 38.27, Charkhi Dadri 29.62, Faridabad 31.71, Fatehabad 40, Hisar 38.34, Jhajjar 36.93, Jind 41.93, Kaithal 38.18, Karnal 39.74, Kurukshetra 41.05, Mahendragarh 38.20, Mewat (Nuh) 42.64, Palwal 41.85, Panipat 38.24, Rewari 35.10, Rohtak 36.19, Sirsa 34.78, Sonipat 33.64 and Yamunanagar 42.08.
In Panchkula, the polling percentage was 25.89, while it was 27.70 in Gurugram. -- PTI