Voter turnout and Lok Sabha poll outcome: Here's the story so far

The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday said that the approximate voter turnouts for Phase-I and -II of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls were 66.14 per cent and 66.71 per cent, respectively. A total of 189 seats went to polls in the two phases. The voter turnout percentage is, according to unofficial estimates, three to four percentage points lower than the voter turnout recorded on these 189 seats five years back. As the voter turnout data since 1967 shows, a rise or fall in voting percentage does not necessarily translate into the defeat of an incumbent or the obverse.

 

Cong releases another list, no decision on Amethi, Raebareli

The Congress on Tuesday fielded actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar from the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat in Haryana and former Union minister Anand Sharma from Kangra in Himachal Pradesh. Satpal Raizada, a former MLA from Himachal Pradesh's Una, has been fielded by the Congress from the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat in the state and will contest the general elections against BJP candidate and Union Minister Anurag Thakur. The party didn’t release names for the Amethi and Raebareli constituencies.

PM writes to Phase-III BJP candidates ahead of voting

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday wrote personalised letters to all BJP candidates contesting in the third phase of the Lok Sabha election on May 3. Addressing the candidates as his 'fellow karyakarta', Modi asked them to spread awareness among voters about the Congress's intention to snatch 'reservation from SC, ST and OBC communities and give it away to their vote bank'. In his letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the PM praised his role as a minister in the abrogation of Article 370 and the passage of three criminal laws.