(Updating figures in para 1)

Chennai/Kolkata, May 8 (UNI) Over a month-long gruelling polling process in the assembly elections concluded today with an estimated 65 per cent of voters exercising their franchise in Tamil Nadu, 81 per cent in Pondicherry and 75 per cent in the fifth and final phase in West Bengal.

Meanwhile, nearly 42 per cent of the voters cast ballots in the Lok Sabha byelection to the Rae Bareli seat, for which Congress President Sonia Gandhi is seeking reelection.

The results of the assembly elections in Asom, Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, will be known on May 11 when the votes are counted. The counting of votes polled in the Lok Sabha byelection will also be taken up simultaneously.

In Tamil Nadu, which witnessed a one-day poll, an estimated 60 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise to choose the 12th Assembly today in a tug-of-war between the AIADMK and the DMK.

The Left fortress of West Bengal saw a turnout of 75 per cent of the 8.1 million electorate.

Deployment of a thick blanket of central para military forces to provide security to the voters kept violence on a tight leash although a Samajwadi Party leader Jaishanker Vajpayee was shot at and wounded after he caught hold of outsiders campaigning for Congress in the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency.

In Pondicherry, an estimated 70 percent of the 613,000 voters had exercised their franchise by 1600 hrs in the elections to 21 assembly constituencies in Pondicherry and six in Karaikal.

Police sources in Chennai said a CISF personnel fired one round in the air to disperse a 50-member strong mob, which tried to attack him at Chinna Salem constituency in Villuppuram district.

In Chennai city, police used mild force to chase workers belonging to the ruling AIADMK and the DMK-led DPA when they tried to cross beyond the 100-metre mark to give voter slips and canvass votes at J J Nagar in R K Nagar Assembly constituency.

In a similar incident in front of a booth in Perambur Assembly constituency, police used mild force to disperse DPA workers after they picked up an argument with them.

The polling will decide the fate of several heavyweights in Tamil Nadu including Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa (Andipatti), DMK president M Karunanidhi (Chepauk), DMK deputy general secretary M K Stalin (Thousand Lights), actor Vijayakanth (Vriddhachalam) and several state Ministers.

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