55 % Polling in 2nd Phase of Lok sabha Election

Second phase of voting is over and around 55 percent voters exercised their right to franchise on Thursday for the 140 Lok Sabha seats across 12 states in the second round of the five-phased elections while polling to the Andhra Pradesh and Orissa assemblies have ended. Two poll officials and a magistrate had a narrow escape when Maoists carried out blasts in Bihar and Jharkhand where security forces repulsed a naxalite bid to disrupt the second phase of elections after a fierce hour-long gunbattle.
In a separate incident, security forces foiled the Maoists' attempt to disrupt polling in Bansdera in East Singhbhum, 165 km from the Jharkhand capital, after a fierce hour-long gunbattle with the ultras. However, the violence in the second and the largest phase covering 140 seats was much less compared to the first one a week ago when 18 people were killed by naxals in Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Gaur cast his vote at a polling station in Gauhati Lok Sabha segment in Assam amid high security.