Lok Sabha Elections 2024: 66.95% voter turnout recorded in first 4 phases of polls

New Delhi: Close to 67 per cent of 67.45 crore people have voted in the first four phases of the Lok Sabha elections, with the Election Commission (EC) on Thursday saying it has introduced various interventions to enhance polling in the remaining three phases of polls.

Voting will be conducted on May 20 and 25 and June 1 in the next phases in 164 Lok Sabha constituencies spread across 13 states and union territories. The counting of votes will be on June 4.

So far, the voting process in 379 seats across India has been completed. With this, the process in 23 states and union territories are over.

According to the EC, 66.95 per cent or 45.1 crore people have voted in the first four phases held on April 19 and 26 and May 7 and 13.

As part of its outreach to enhance voter turnout, the EC said it has made various interventions to appeal and motivate voters to cast their vote, adding that don’t get surprised if one receives a call from cricket legend and EC National Icon, Sachin Tendulkar, appealing to cast their vote.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said the EC strongly believes that partnership and collaboration are essential pillars of voter awareness programmes and it was “really heartening” to see that different institutions, influencers and celebrities having significant reach are working enthusiastically on a pro-bono basis.

Urging people to vote in huge numbers as “voting day is not a holiday but a day of pride”, he said, “a high voter turnout would be a message from Indian voters to the world about the strength of Indian democracy.”

According to the EC, telecom providers like BSNL, Airtel, Jio and Vodafone are reaching out to every mobile user through messages and calls a few days before polling with an appeal to vote. The BCCI is playing voter awareness messages and songs during IPL matches besides playing the pre-recorded message of Tendulkar at venues.

It said Facebook is sending voting day alerts to all its users across the country, while Google is running doodles on polling day. Banking institutions and Retail Association of India are also participating in voters’ awareness programmes.