Some media reports estimated a 60 percent voter turnout in Andhra Pradesh, the second most populous state of India after Tamil Nadu.

Speaking from west Indian state Maharashtra, a local resident Bharat Hande cited an isolated case of minor violence in Bhandara constituency of Nagpur area.

Villagers queue up to cast their votes outside a polling station at Moharipur village in the northern Indian city of Gorakhpur April 16, 2009.[Xinhua]

"After some minor hiccups, voting continued without any major obstacle in Nagpur," he said.

"Men carried their aged parents on their backs, and voter-turnout was reasonably good," another voter, Ram Dev, of central Indian state Uttar Pradesh said in northern India.

In the restive northeast state of Assam, voting went on without problem and turnout rate stood at around 65 percent, said officials.

New Delhi student Zo Khiangte, who spoke to her mother in Karbi, Assam, told Xinhua that people queued up to vote in Assam, while security forces kept vigil at booths, she said.

In the northeast Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya states, turnout rate also reached from 60 to 70 percent, while the Manipurstate bordering Myanmar had a 40 to 50 percent turnout rate, according to primary estimates by official.

Meanwhile, in violence-shaken Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar, about 50 percent of the voters turned to cast their franchise despite relentless attacks by the Naxal insurgency rebels who killed at least 18 people during the day, including seven paramilitary troopers and one policemen.

(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2009)