Amid tight security, polling began on Wednesday for the high-profile Tehri Lok Sabha seat in Uttarakhand where chief minister Vijay Bahuguna's son and Congress nominee Saket Bahuguna is taking on BJP's Mala Raj Laxmi Shah, a member of the erstwhile Tehri royal family.

Enthusiastic voters, including women, turned up in substantial numbers at the polling booths spread over the three districts of Dehradun, Tehri and Uttarkashi to exercise their franchise in the bypoll necessitated after the chief minister resigned from the seat following his victory from Sitarganj Assembly constituency.

A total of 1185606 voters including 563845 women will decide the fate of 14 candidates in the fray for the bypoll in which Congress and BJP are locked in a straight contest.

2011 polling booths have been set up out of which 334 have been identified as hyper sensitive and 311 as sensitive.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made to ensure peaceful, free and fair polling, official sources said.