Pics: Heavy security as India goes to polls

New Delhi: India began voting on Thursday to pick a new 545-seat Lok Sabha in the first phase of staggered elections widely expected to throw up a split verdict. About 14.3 crore of India's 71.4 million voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the first of five rounds in 1,85,552 polling centres. A total of 1,715 candidates are in the fray. Over 300,000 electronic voting machines are being used and tens of thousands of election staff and security personnel have been deployed to conduct the electoral exercise - the world's largest.