Lucknow, May 6 (IANS) Voting began on Monday for 14 parliamentary constituencies of Uttar Pradesh, including the high-profile Amethi, Rae Bareli and Lucknow seats, at 7 a.m., said an official.

Voting, which began at 7 this morning, will conclude at 6 in the evening. 

Early voters to cast their votes include Union Ministers Rajnath Singh in Lucknow and Rajyavardhan Rathore in  Jaipur (Rural) constituencies. 

Polling is underway at 14  seats in Uttar Pradesh, 12 in Rajasthan, 7 each in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, 5 in Bihar and 4 in Jharkhand. 

In Jammu and Kashmir, polling is being held in Pulwama and Shopian districts of Anantnag and Ladakh constituencies. 

Prominent candidates in this phase include Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Jayant Sinha, BJP leaders Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Arjun Munda and Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Jitin Prasad.

In Uttar Pradesh, a total of 182 candidates including 26 women are in the fray for 14 constituencies. These include Sitapur, Lucknow, Raibarely, Amethi, Kaushambi, Gonda, Banda, Fatehpur, Faizabad and Behraich. 

In Bihar, 82 candidates including six women are in the fray for 5 Lok Sabha seats. 

In Jharkhand, polling is progressing peacefully in four Parliamentary constituencies. Our correspondent reports that queues were seen at the polling stations even before the beginning of the poll.
 
In Jammu and Kashmir, polling is progressing peacefully in Ladakh Parliamentary constituency.