Kochi, April 23: Voting for all the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala began at 7 a.m. on Tuesday and will end at 5 PM. The counting of votes will be done on May 23. People queued up in large numbers to cast their votes. In Kerala, several complaints of malfunctioning of electronic voting machines (EVMs) were reported on Tuesday as the state voted to elect 20 Lok Sabha members. Meanwhile, an unusual 'visitor'- a snake, visited a polling booth in the Kannur Lok Sabha constituency.

According to reports, 227 candidates will fight it out for the 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state, in the third phase of polling. In the Kannur constituency, sitting MP P K Sreemathy (CPI-M-LDF), K Surendrdan (Cong-UDF) and C K Padmanabhan (BJP-NDA) are trying their luck. Reports inform that a record 227 candidates will fight it out for the 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state, which go to the polls in the third phase of polling.  Kerala Lok Sabha, Assembly Elections 2019: Phase 3 Voting Underway,Pinarayi Vijayan, Shashi Tharoor Cast Votes. 

According to a report by PTI, a small snake was found inside a VVPAT machine in a booth at Mayyil Kandakkai in the constitutency. Reports inform that this constituency in Kerala is witnessing heavy polling but the incident caused panic among voters. The snake was later removed and polling resumed thereafter.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter and tweeted the news saying, "Snake inside VVPAT machine holds up polling in Kannur- this must be a first for Indian democracy?!".

Polling for the third phase across 117 parliamentary constituencies across the nation began on Tuesday at 7 AM. In Kerala, as many as 227 candidates are in fray contesting on all the 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Wayanad is considered the main focus as Rahul Gandhi is contesting from this seat for the first time. He is in the fray with 19 other candidates. Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Phase 3 Voting in 117 Seats Today, Rahul Gandhi and Amit Shah in Fray.

Apart from Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, polling is underway in Kasaragod, Kannur, Kollam, Attingal, Thiruvananthapuram, Vadakara, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Ponnani, Palakkad, Alanthur, Thrissur, Chalakudy, Ernakulam, Idukki, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Mavelikkara and Pathanamthitta.

The states which are voting in the third phase of Lok Sabha Elections are Uttar Pradesh, Tripura, Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Gujarat, West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir and Union Territories Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 23, 2019 01:19 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).