LS polls 1st phase largely peaceful, highest voting in Tripura

The Election Commission said on Thursday that voting across 91 Lok Sabha seats spread over 20 states and Union Territories in the first phase of the seven phase elections was largely peaceful, barring a few stray incidents.

According to Election Commission officials, highest voting percentage was recorded in Tripura (81.8 per cent) followed by West Bengal (81 per cent).

Bihar recorded lowest voting percentage with 50 per cent voters turning out followed by 56 per cent voting in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

The officials said that 70.67 per cent voting was recorded in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 66 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, 60 per cent in Telangana, 57.85 per cent in Uttarakhand, 58 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir, 69 per cent in Sikkim, 60 per cent in Mizoram, 78 per cent in Nagaland, 78.2 per cent in Manipur and 68 per cent in Assam.

Uttar Pradesh recorded 63.69 per cent while in Lakshdweep, 66 per cent voteers exercised their franchise and Meghalaya recorded 67.16 polling.

The 10 states and two Union Territories, where voting happened in all parliamentary constituencies, are Andhra Pradesh (25), Telangana (17), Arunachal Pradesh (2), Meghalaya (2), Uttarakhand (5), Mizoram (1), Nagaland (1), Sikkim (1), Lakshadweep (1), and Andaman and Nicobar Islands (1).

Eight out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh that voted Thursday are Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, Baghpat, Bijnor, Meerut and Gautam Buddha Nagar

The four parliamentary constituencies in Bihar that voted are Aurangabad, Gaya, Nawada and Jamui. Cooch Behar and Alipurduar were two of West Bengal's 42 seats that also voted as well as 7 out of 48 in Maharashtra and two out of six in Jammu and Kashmir.

--IANS

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