More than half of the 93 constituencies where voting took place in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday saw a drop in voter turnout compared to 2019.
The Election Commission on Saturday announced a final turnout of 65.68% in 93 seats, which was 1.32 percentage points lower than the turnout in the same seats in the previous Lok Sabha polls.
According to EC data, turnout increased in 40 seats, but voter participation decreased in the remaining 53 seats (57%). Turnout among male voters was about 2.5 points higher than among female voters, at 66.89% and 64.41%, respectively.
Of the 10 seats where the turnout declined the most, eight were in Gujarat (Bardoli, Dahod, Ahmedabad East, Navsari, Vadodara, Gandhinagar, Mahesana, and Amreli). Bardoli in southern Gujarat reported the biggest drop in turnout of 9 percentage points. Gandhinagar, where Home Minister Amit Shah ran as the incumbent, saw a decline of 6 percentage points. Voting in 25 of Gujarat’s 26 assembly seats was held in the third phase. In Surat, a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate was elected unopposed following the rejection of the Congress candidate’s nomination papers and withdrawal of nominations by other candidates.
Turnout among women voters was high in 16 constituencies spread across Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Karnataka, West Bengal, Dadra, Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu. In 2019, women had a higher turnout than men in 18 of the same 93 seats.
Of the 10 seats with the highest disparity in voter turnout between men and women, nine were in Gujarat. The male turnout in Porbandar, Jamnagar, Kheda and Rajkot was more than 10 percentage points higher than the female turnout.
Most turnout patterns were the same for male and female voters, but trends differed in a few seats. In Gwalior, for example, male turnout increased by 7 percentage points, while female turnout decreased by 2.6 percentage points. Last time, Gwalior was the seat where women’s turnout was high (4 percentage points), but this time the turnout of men was more than 4 percentage points higher than that of women.
Amid criticism from opposition parties over the delay in announcing the official voter turnout for the first and second phases, the EC said on Tuesday night that the provisional turnout for the third phase was 64.4% as of 11:40 p.m. A statement said the final numbers would be announced. He will be released by Saturday. The day after the vote, the EC’s turnout app showed that turnout had reached 65%.
“The final turnout will be known only after the postal votes are counted and added to the total number of votes cast,” the EC said in a statement on Saturday.
Of the 11 states and UTs where polls were held in the third phase, four states – Bihar, Dadra Nagar Haveli, Daman Diu, Goa and West Bengal – had higher turnout of women than men. it was high. Male turnout was higher in Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
© Indian Express Private Limited
Originally uploaded to: November 5, 2024 23:54 IST
