Hisar (Haryana), Oct 13 (IANS): Polling proceeded peacefully and briskly in the crucial Hisar Lok Sabha by-election with more than half of the 1.3 million electorate voting till 3 p.m., officials said Thursday.

Till 3 p.m., 55.55 percent of the electorate had exercised their franchise in an election that became more significant with Team Anna stepping into the political fray and asking people not to vote for the Congress.

Sources in the Election Commission said a huge turnout was expected by 5 p.m. when polling ends. Counting of votes will take place Oct 17.

The three main contenders for the seat are Kuldeep Bishnoi of the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), the son of late chief minister Bhajan Lal; Indian National Lok Dal's (INLD) Ajay Chautala, the son of former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala; and three-time former MP Jai Prakash of the Congress.

Bishnoi has the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the election.

The election hit the national spotlight after Anna Hazare and members of his team asked people to vote against the Congress as part of the fight against corruption and misgovernance.

There is heavy security to ensure the smooth conduct of voting; for the first time video-filming of all 1,506 polling centres will be done.

A total of 340 polling booths have been declared hyper-sensitive while 387 polling booths have been declared sensitive by the election commission.

Besides local police, around 40 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed to prevent any untoward incident. There are 1,332,000 voters - 729,857 men and 602,323 women - who will decide the fate of the aspirants for this seat, which fell vacant in June this year following the death of Bhajan Lal, a three-time chief minister.