Feels great taking part in democratic process: Narendra Modi

" Voted! It feels great to be taking part in our democratic process," he tweeted.

Accompanied by BJP chief Amit Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday cast his vote in Ahmedabad as the third phase of polling in the Lok Sabha elections is currently underway.

After casting his vote, PM Modi told reporters: "The weapon of terrorism is IED, the strength of democracy is voter ID."

"I believe that the strength of voter ID card is more than IED," he said. "We should understand the importance of our voter ID cards," he said.

Modi cast his vote at a polling booth in Nishan Higher Secondary School in Ranip area of the city.

Voting began at 0700 hrs on Tuesday as polling kicked off to elect representatives from 117 Lok Sabha constituencies across 13 states and two Union Territories in the third of the seven-phase 2019 General Election.

The third phase of election is billed as the biggest as it covers the largest number of Parliamentary constituencies in a single phase.

More than 18 crore, 85 lakh voters are going to decide the fate of 1,640 candidates in over 210,000 polling booths in place for smooth conduct of polls, an official statement here said.