Story in numbers: At least 644.08 mn may have voted this LS election

The Election Commission is yet to release the final data for the phase VII, which was held on Saturday, of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Estimates indicate at least 644.08 million voters cast their votes from April 19 to June 1, out of an estimated 981 million electors.

In 2019, 614.7 million of total 911.9 million voters had cast their votes, which had put the voter turnout average at 67.4 per cent, the best ever for a Lok Sabha election. In 2014, 554.2 million of total 834.1 million electors exercised their right, with a voter turnout percentage at 66.44 per cent. In 2009, 417.3 million voters had cast their vote out of a total electorate of 717 million with a voter turnout of 58.21 per cent.

In absolute numbers, at least 30 million more people cast their votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. According to SBI Research, which analysed the data for the first six phases, a total of 578 million voters on 486 seats exercised their right, which it said, was an increase of 35 million over the 2019 figures. Its note, released last Wednesday, said that of the additional voters, the number of female voters increased by 17.3 million, while that of male voters rose by 16.2 million. The note said 250 constituencies of the 486 that had polled by then had witnessed an increase in voters by more than 50,000, while there was a status quo on 198 seats. Only 37 constituencies saw a decline in the number of voters in six phases of the 2024 polls compared to that in 2019.

The 2019 Lok Sabha polls were also the first where the percentage turnout of women electors at 67.18 per cent was better than that of male electors at 67.02 per cent. In 2024, the turnout of women electors was better than that of men only in phases V and VI. The data of phase VII is yet to be released.