Elections to 49 assembly seats in six North Bengal districts began on Monday in the fifth and final phase amid tight security to determine the fate of 306 candidates, including seven ministers.

Coverage: Assembly Polls 2006

Of the six districts, there are nine seats in Coochbehar, 12 in Jalpaiguri, seven in Uttar Dinajpur, five in Dakshin Dinajpur 11 in Malda and five in Darjeeling. They have a total electorate of 81.76 lakh.

About 30 per cent people cast their votes till noon as polling was going on peacefully.

Deputy Election Commissioner Anand Kumar said no untoward incident had been reported so far from anywhere.

"Polling is peaceful and voters are enthusiastic. We have not received reports of any major incident," he told UNI.

However, official reports said Border Security Force jawans shot dead one person at Rahugram under Islampur constituency in North Dinajpur district, bordering Bangladesh when he was trying to sneak into the Indian territory.

Three Revolutionary Socialist Party activists were arrested from Balurghat in South Dinajpore district, while another was arrested from Tapan in Maldaha district for campaigning for their parties.

Voters in one each booth in Manickchak and Ratua assembly constituencies in Maldaha district have boycotted polling in protest against 'tardy' development in their areas.

Polling had to be suspended in a number of booths following snag in the electronic voting machines, while voters complained of very slow pace of polling from many areas.

Allegations were also received from a sizable number of people in the poll-going districts that they were not allowed to vote for not possessing photo identity cards even though the Election Commission had recognised them as genuine voters.

Polling started on a brisk note. With the weather looking up after Sunday night's squall bringing much-needed respite, people from all walks of life, particularly tea garden workers, were seen queuing up in front of several booths to exercise their franchise.

The voters included a sizable number of women and the youth, exercising their franchise for the first time.

Ministers in the fray are Asoke Bhattacharya, Jogesh Barman, Biswanath Choudhury, Sailen Sarkar, Hafiz Alam Sairani, Srikumar Mukherjee and Dasharath Tirkey. Altogether 477 companies of central paramilitary forces have been deployed in the six districts and international borders with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan have been sealed. The inter-state borders with Assam and Bihar have also been sealed.

Inspector General of Police (North Bengal) K C Meena said there was no threat from either the KLO or the Maoists to the poll process. The Greater Coochbehar Peoples Association (GCPA) has called off its fast-unto-death programme in Coochbehar started from May five.

The Raiganj constituency in Uttar Dianjpur has the highest number of 11 candidates, while Kumargram (Jalpaiguri district), Chopra and Islampur (both Uttar Dinajpur) each have only three contestants.

Siliguri constituency in Darjeeling district has the largest number of 2,70,339 voters, while Manikchak in Malda district has the lowest voting population of 1,35,573.