Chennai, Apr 18 (IANS): Nearly 31 per cent of the electorate cast their votes in Tamil Nadu's 38 Lok Sabha and 18 Assembly constituencies on Thursday and polling is continuing at a brisk rate, an Election Commission (EC) official said.

In the first three hours till 11 a.m., 30.62 per cent voting was recorded, Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo told the media here.

He said voters who do not have the booth slips can cast their ballots by showing any one of the permitted identity papers.

Sahoo said there were reports of technical glitches involving EVMs in some centres, but the issues were sorted out.

About 5.8 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of 822 candidates in the Lok Sabha battle. Polling started at 7 a.m. and would continue till 6 p.m.

Notable political personalities including Chief Minister K. Palaniswami, DMK President M.K. Stalin, actor-politician Rajinikanth, DMDK leader Vijayakanth, PMK's S. Ramadoss and Anbumani Ramadoss, Congress' P. Chidambaram, BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararjan, Makkal Needhi Maiam founder Kamal Haasan and DMK leaders Kanimozhi as well as Duraimurugan voted.

Actors like Ajith, Vijay, Surya and others too voted.