The voter turnout in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha Elections, touching almost 70 per cent, has shown improvement from the last three phases owing to better participation in almost half of the seats. Also, in a first, the average turnout in the fourth phase was higher than in 2019, numbers from the Election Commission of India, analysed by News18, show.
A major jump was reported in voting in Srinagar, where the turnout in 2024 was about 38.49 per cent, almost 2.5 times of 14.43 per cent from 2019.
A total of 96 seats went for polling on May 13 under the fourth phase and 47 of these reported higher voter turnouts than 2019, the analysis shows. The list included 11 seats in Andhra Pradesh and 16 from Telangana — the two states that went for polls in a single phase on May 13.
Of the 13 seats from Uttar Pradesh, five reported marginally higher turnout than 2019. In Odisha, polling for four Lok Sabha seats took place this week and the turnout in three of these was higher than 2019. Seven out of 11 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra also reported higher voter turnout from 2019.
On the other hand, all the eight Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal reported lower turnout than 2019, although the drop was much wider in Madhya Pradesh. All the eight seats in Madhya Pradesh reported lower voting than 2019, with Indore, where Congress candidate withdrew the candidature and the party sought vote for NOTA, performing the worst. The turnout in Indore dropped about eight percentage points this time from 2019 — highest for any seat in the fourth phase.
The average turnout of the 96 seats was 70.15 per cent this time, up from 69.80 per cent from 2019, the ECI numbers analysed by News18 show.
This is the first time that the collective average of a phase in Lok Sabha 2024 surpassed the 2019 numbers.
The analysis also shows that on at least 22 seats, the turnout was higher than 80 per cent, including 15 seats from Andhra Pradesh. Last time, 20 seats had more than 80 per cent turnout.
Among the seats, Andhra Pradesh’s Ongole had the highest voter turnout at 87.06 per cent. In 2019, with 86.34 per cent, it was at the second position. Bapatla was at the top with 86.47 per cent turnout in 2019. The top five seats with highest turnout were from Andhra Pradesh.
On the other hand, Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Malkajgiri in Telangana were at the bottom with less than 50 per cent turnout. Even though these three seats have performed poor this time, their turnout was higher than 2019.
The average turnout in Telangana in 2019 was 62.77 per cent that improved to 65.67 per cent this time. In Andhra Pradesh, there was a slight improvement in turnout — from 80.38 per cent to 80.66 per cent.
As per the ECI, Lok Sabha Elections 2024 have seen the voter turnout of about 66.95 per cent so far, with 45 crore people exercising their right during the first four phases.
Explore in-depth coverage of Lok Sabha Election 2024 Schedule, Voter Turnout, Upcoming Phase And Much More At News18 Website
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