Kannur: An unusual "visitor" in a polling booth in the Kannur Lok Sabha constituency, held up voting for a brief while on Tuesday. A small snake was found inside a VVPAT machine in a booth at Mayyil Kandakkai in the constitutency, which is witnessing heavy polling, triggering panic among officials and voters. However, the reptile was soon removed and voting continued.

The Kannur constituency, where sitting MP P K Sreemathy (CPI-M-LDF), K Surendrdan (Cong-UDF) and C K Padmanabhan (BJP-NDA) are trying their luck, is witnessing brisk polling since the morning. Voting began on Tuesday for 116 Lok Sabha seats, including all constituencies in Gujarat and Kerala, with BJP president Amit Shah, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and several Union ministers among prominent candidates in the fray. About 18.56 crore voters are eligible for voting in the third phase of the elections, for which 2.10 lakh polling booths/stations have been set up. The Election Commission has made elaborate security arrangements.