Around 1.76 crore voters will seal the fate of 1,078 candidates, including the two Chief Ministerial aspirants Parkash Singh Badal of ruling SAD-BJP and Amarinder Singh of Opposition Congress, in fray in Punjab.

About 200 companies of the central Para military forces, besides Punjab Police personnel, have been deployed to ensure free and peaceful polling at 19,841 polling stations, including five identified as "hyper-sensitive" and 32 as sensitive, an election office spokesman said.

Out of the 1,078 candidates in fray 417, including 45 women, are Independents. At the last hustings in 2007, after scrutiny and withdrawal there were a total of 1,055 candidates, including 56 women, in fray.

The ruling SAD-BJP alliance, the Congress and BSP are contesting all the 117 assembly seats. Newly formed Punjab People's Party is contesting 92 while SAD (Amritsar) headed by former IPS officer Simranjit Singh Mann is contesting 57 seats.

The SAD has put up candidates on 94 seats which include 10 women while the BJP is contesting the remaining 23 seats, which includes three women.

The Congress has fielded 11 women while the BSP has fielded six women.

Most of the 117 Assembly seats will witness a triangular contest between the ruling SAD-BJP alliance, the main opposition Congress and the Sanjha Morcha which includes the Left and People's Party of Punjab (PPP) led by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's estranged nephew Manpreet.

Prominent among those in fray include Badal (Lambi) as also his predecessor Amarinder (Patiala City) whose sons Sukhbir, who is also the Deputy Chief Minister (Jalalabad) and Raninder (Samana) are also in the fray besides another former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal (Lehra).

Uttarakhand: Polling commenced today in 70 Assembly constituencies in Uttarakhand amid tight security with over 60 lakh voters expected to exercise their franchise in the single-phased elections.

Over 63 lakh electorates will decide the fate of 788 candidates with the top contenders from the ruling BJP and Congress contesting all the 70 seats.

Top state leaders, including chief minister B C Khanduri from Kotdwar, former chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank from Doiwala, Leader of Opposition Harak Singh Rawat from Rudraprayag and PCC chief Yashpal Arya from Baajpur seats will try their luck at the polls.

Polling commenced at 0800 hrs and would end at 5 pm, Uttarakhand Chief Electoral Officer Radha Raturi said.

She said elaborate arrangements have been made for smooth conduct of polling and all the personnel deployed in high-altitude areas have been provided with sleeping bags, snow-boot and jackets.

An Indian Air Force helicopter has also been stationed at Sarsawa as part of rescue efforts to meet with any eventuality, Raturi added.

She said 9744 polling booths have been set up across the state out of which 1794 stations have been declared as "sensitive" and 1252 as "hyper-sensitive".

A total of 75 companies of Central paramilitary force besides 10,000 home guards from Uttar Pradesh, 2000 home guards from Himachal Pradesh and 10,000 personnel from Uttarakhand Police have been deployed for the polls.

Raturi said nearly Rs 1.40 crore in cash has so far been seized in various parts of the state.

Apart from it, nearly 14,000 litres of liquor was also seized during the period, she said, adding 103 cases of violation of election code of conduct were also registered against various candidates in the state.