Thiruvananthapuram, April 26 : Voters in Kerala on Friday braved the scorching heat with 50 per cent of them casting their vote, according to official figures. In the fray are 194 candidates.

Voters in the state number 2,77,49,159, including 1,43,33,499 women, 1,34,15,293 men and 367 transgenders. They are eligible to elect 20 Lok Sabha members.

For the past one week, the sun has been beating down with mercury levels touching 40 degrees on Friday, but people have turned out in good numbers. With the blistering election campaign launched by the three political fronts which include the ruling CPI(M)-led Left, the Congress-led UDF and the BJP-led NDA besides a string of Independent candidates and a few other parties, voters have risen to the occasion. Now it is to be seen if the 2019 Lok Sabha polls turnout of 77.67 per cent will be breached.

The highlight on Friday has been that voters across the state queued up even before polling began at 7 a.m. In all, there are 25,177 polling booths and 181 auxiliary booths. Of these, 2,776 are model polling booths and 555 polling booths are manned by all-women teams.

Meanwhile reports indicate that across the state at several polling booths there are large queues with voters waiting to cast their votes. In the 2019 polls, the Congress-led UDF won 19 seats while the Left won one.

/IANS