Bengaluru: Voting was underway on Thursday in the first phase of polling for Karnataka's 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state's central and southern regions amid tight security, an election official said. "Voting began at 7 a.m. in all the 30,164 booths across the 14 parliamentary seats of the state under tight security," the official told IANS. Among those who took to their respective polling booths were former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, actor-turned-politician Rajinikanth, BJP candidate from Bengaluru South Tejasvi Surya, and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, among others.

Karnataka: Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman casts her vote at polling booth 54 in Jayanagar of Bangalore South Parliamentary constituency. #LokSabhaElections2019 pic.twitter.com/JEr2Bdtlf8

— ANI (@ANI) April 18, 2019

The constituencies where polling is underway are Udupi-Chikmagalur, Hassan, Dakshina Kannada, Chitradurga (SC), Tumkur, Mandya, Mysore, Chamarajnagar (SC), Bangalore Rural, Bangalore North, Bangalore Central, Bangalore South, Chikkaballapur and Kolar (SC). Of the 2.67-crore electorate in the first phase, 1.35-crore male and 1.32-crore female voters will decide the fate of 241 candidates, including 15 women and 133 Independents.