Lok Sabha Elections 2024: 64% voter turnout in phase-3 of polls

Assam recorded the highest turnout at 81.71%, followed by Goa at 75.20% and West Bengal at 75.79%. The least was in Uttar Pradesh, which saw 57.34% while Bihar recorded 58.18%.

New Delhi: At least 64 per cent of 17.24 crore eligible people voted in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday, marking the crossing of the half-way mark with the voting process completing in 283 seats in 20 states and Union territories.

The third phase saw sealing the fate of over 1,331 candidates, including Home Minister Amit Shah, Supriya Sule and Jyotiraditya Scindia, amid reports of sporadic violence in West Bengal.

During the day, 75 international delegates from 23 countries visited several polling stations in six states to witness the poll process. The delegates also witnessed the process of dispatch of polling materials and machines to the polling teams, the Election Commission said.

The Election Commission Voter Turnout App pegged the turnout at 64.36 % at 11:30 pm, which could increase as more data is expected, as against 68.4 per cent in the second phase of 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Assam recorded the highest turnout at 81.71 per cent, followed by Goa at 75.20 per cent and West Bengal at 75.79 per cent. The least was in Uttar Pradesh, which saw 57.34 per cent while Bihar recorded 58.18 per cent.

On the lower side of turnout, Gujarat recorded 58.69 per cent while neighbouring Maharashtra recorded 61.44 per cent, Chhattisgarh recorded 71.06 per cent, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu 69.87 per cent and Madhya Pradesh recorded 66.05 per cent.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi cast his vote at a polling booth in Gandhinagar. In a post on X, he asked people to vote in record numbers and said their active participation will make the election more vibrant. He also greeted people and signed autographs on his way to the polling booth in the Gujarat capital.

While incidents of violence were reported from West Bengal's Murshidabad and Jangipur seats, Samajwadi Party candidates alleged that their voters were prevented from voting allegedly by the BJP workers as well as police.

Some villages like Dhoranpur boycotted the polling to protest against the alleged non-fulfilment of their demand for a road. None in three villages of Firozabad -- Nagla Jawahar, Neem Kheria and Nagla Umar -- voted though the district administration tried their best to convince them.

Polling was held in 25 seats of Gujarat, 14 in Karnataka, 11 in Maharashtra, 10 in UP, nine in Madhya Pradesh, seven in Chhattisgarh, five in Bihar, four each in Assam and West Bengal and two each in Goa and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

The prominent fights are in Baramati (Supriya Sule vs Sunetra Pawar), Gandhinagar (Amit Shah), Raghoghar (Digvijaya Singh) Mainpuri (Dimple Yadav), Guna (Jyotiraditya Scindia) and Vidisha (Shivraj Chouhan).

Incidentally, the turnout in Baramati was just 56.07 per cent, though the electoral battle there has attracted national attention with Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar, who had taken control of NCP by splitting it, are not fighting together. Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule is fighting again in the seat, while Ajit has fielded his wife Sunetra from the family bastion.

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