66.71% of voters in Ph-I and 66.14% in Ph-II; EC
The Election Commission of India (ECI) released the much-awaited figures this evening, more than ten days after the first phase of polling on April 19, after taking a daylong political scolding from opposition leaders for not disclosing final polling data for the first two phases of voting for the Lok Sabha elections.
The ECI reports that 66.14 percent of voters participated in the first phase on April 19 and 66.71% of voters participated in the second phase on April 26.
With three seats and an 81.9 percent turnout in the first round, West Bengal led, followed by Sikkim with 79.8 percent and Tripura with 81.4 percent. With 49.2% of the vote for four seats in the first round, Bihar had the lowest turnout of all the states. Tamil Nadu had 69.7% of the vote in all 39 seats, whereas Uttarakhand had a poor turnout of 57.2 percent in all five seats.
Based on seat-by-seat figures, the turnout was 83.6 percent in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal; 83.3 percent in Arunachal East; 82.1 percent in Cooch Behar, West Bengal; 81% in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh; and 79% in Inner Manipur.
The two seats with the lowest attendance, Almora in Uttarakhand (487.7%) and Nawada (43.7%), were both in Uttarakhand.
The one seat in Outer Manipur had the highest turnout of any state in the second round, at 84.8%. Assam (81%) and Tripura (80.3%) were the other states with high voter participation in that phase, West Bengal (76.5%) and Chhattisgarh (76.5%) being the other states with three seats each. With 55.1% of voters participating in the second round, Uttar Pradesh had the lowest turnout.
Darrang-Udalguri in Assam had a turnout of 82%, Nagaon 84.9 %, Mandya in Karnataka 81 %, Kolar 78.2 %, Hassan 77.5 %, Dakshin Kannada 77.6 %, Udupi 77 %, Kannur in Kerala 77.2 %, Chikkaballapur in Karnataka 77 %, Kanker in Chhattisgarh 76 %, and Balurghat in West Bengal 79% of the total number of votes cast. Turnout was 49% in Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa seat, 49% in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura seat, and 48% in Ghaziabad seat.
Political yelling by opposition leaders, who expressed disapproval at the two phases’ data’s delayed release, preceded the data’s release. Sitaram Yechuri, secretary general of the CPM, described it as a worrying trend. Jairam Ramesh, a congressman, described ECI’s stance as “quite surprising!” “It’s time for the Election Commission to withstand undue pressure, assert its authority, and ensure transparency,” said NCP leader Supriya Sule.
