Over 69% voter turnout in first phase: EC

The voter turnout during the first phase of the seven-phase elections was recorded at 69.43 per cent in the 91 Lok Sabha seats spread across 18 states and two Union Territories where polling took place on Thursday, the Election Commission said on Friday.

In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the final voter turnout was 66.44 per cent.

The poll panel said data from a few polling stations was still awaited as polling teams from some remote locations were yet to return, and that a slight variation in polling percentage was expected.

In terms of numbers, over 9.13 crore voters exercised their franchise out of the total 13.16 crore voters eligible to vote during the first phase. Among men, the voter turnout was 72.12 per cent and among women, it was 71.93 per cent.

According to the data shared by the poll panel, the highest voting percentage was recorded in Lakshadweep (84.96 per cent), followed by West Bengal (83.79 per cent) and Tripura (83.26 per cent).

Bihar recorded lowest voting percentage with 53.47 per cent voters turning out followed by 57.35 per cent voting in Jammu and Kashmir, and 59.89 per cent in Uttarakhand.

The poll panel said that 64.85 per cent voting was recorded in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 78.14 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, 62.69 per cent in Telangana, 78.19 per cent in Sikkim, 63.02 per cent in Mizoram, 83.12 per cent in Nagaland, 82.82 per cent in Manipur, 71.41 per cent in Meghalaya and 78.23 per cent in Assam.

Uttar Pradesh recorded 63.88 per cent while in Maharashtra, 63.04 per cent voters exercised their franchise and Chhattisgarh recorded 65.8 per cent 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 on 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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