As voting for 96 Lok Sabha seats ended on Monday, the tournout dipped to 67.3% in the fourth phase, compared to 69.6% in 2019, mirroring the falling trend witnessed during the last three rounds. With the completion of 4th round, voting for a total of 379 seats, representing over two-thirds of Lok Sabha, ended.
The overall turnout for 2019 does not include the delimited seat of Srinagar, which recorded the lowest turnout this time round, at 38%. It was, however, the best performance in the constituency (as it stood then) since 1998, when 30.1% registered voters cast their vote. In 2019, 14.4% voting was recorded.
According to data available on Election Commission’s voter turnout app around midnight, the second worst polling was seen in Hyderabad, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s home turf, which saw 45.1% turnout, a slight improvement from 44.8% recorded in 2019. Secunderabad witnessed 48.1% voting, higher than 46.5% five years ago. Pune saw 51.3% polling, although it managed to better last time’s record of 49.9%.
Kanpur reported 52.9% polling compared with 51.6% in 2019, while Kannauj, where Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is contesting, reported a marginal improvement in polling performance - from 60.86% to 60.89%.
Barring Telangana and J&K, all other states where elections were held on Monday reported lower turnout; the sharpest decline was recorded in Madhya Pradesh where 71% polling was registered, against 75.7% in 2019. Polling time in certain assembly segments of the 17 parliamentary constituencies in Telangana was increased due to higher voter participation, EC said in a statement.
While West Bengal, where polling was held in eight seats, recorded the highest turnout of 78.4%, it was still lower than five years ago. Among the 96 seats, where 1,717 candidates were in the fray, Bolpur recorded highest polling of 81.2%, against 85.7% in 2019. Bardhaman Purba, also in Bengal, saw a turnout at 81%, against 84.8% in the last election.
The EC app showed 78.4% turnout for the Andhra assembly, where elections were held simultaneously. For all 25 LS seats, 78.2% polling was recorded.
65.7% voter turnout in 3rd phase
The Election Commission said that the third phase of voting for Lok Sabha elections on May 7 held across 93 constituencies saw a voter turnout of 65.7%. Like the earlier two phases, this time too the voting percentage among men (66.9%) was higher than among women (64.4%). However, four states and Union Territories - Bihar, West Bengal, Goa and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu - saw more women voters exercise their franchise. As per data, South Goa, three constituencies in Assam - Dhubri, Guwahati and Kokrajhar - and Bidar in Karnataka also saw a higher women turnout than men.
Amreli in Gujarat, which recorded the lowest overall polling, also saw only 46.2% women casting their votes. Dhubri in Assam, where overall voting has been the highest so far, saw maximum turnout of women voters at 92.2%.
