New Delhi, May 5
An estimated 25 per cent of the 10.72 crore electorate cast their votes till noon in the third phase of elections to 83 Lok Sabha seats in seven states marred by sporadic violence in Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir which left one person dead and 37 injured.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee (Lucknow), UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri), Union Ministers Murli Manohar Joshi (Allahabad), Shahnawaz Hussain (Kishanganj, Bihar), Digvijay Singh (Banka), Prahlad Patel and Congress veteran Kamalnath (Chhindwara), PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti (Anantnag) are prominent among the 921 candidates in fray.

The third round covers 30 out of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 25 seats in Rajasthan, 12 out of 29 constituencies in Madhya Pradesh, the last 12 of 40 seats in Bihar, one each in Jammu and Kashmir and Nagaland and two in Arunachal Pradesh.

Militants attacked a polling station in Anantnag district headquarters with a grenade which exploded killing one person and injuring two others.

Fifteen persons, including five policemen and four poll officials, were injured when militants lobbed a grenade at a polling booth in Bijbehara, the home town of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

Militants also attacked several other polling booths with grenades without causing any casualty.