A voter turnout of 62.36 percent has been recorded in the seventh and final phase of Lok Sabha elections for which polling was held yesterday.
In this phase, the polling was held in 57 Parliamentary Constituencies spread over seven States and one Union Territory. These include 13 seats each in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, nine in West Bengal, eight in Bihar, six in Odisha, four in Himachal Pradesh, three in Jharkhand and one Parliamentary Constituency in Chandigarh.
In Bihar, 51.92 per cent voter turnout was recorded while Chandigarh registered 67.90 per cent, Himachal Pradesh 70.05 per cent and Jharkhand 70.66 percent voting. In Punjab, 61.32 percent of polling was recorded while in Uttar Pradesh, it was 55.59 percent and West Bengal registered 73.79 per cent turnout. In Odisha, the voter turnout remained 70.67 percent where simultaneous polling was also held for the remaining 42 Assembly seats.
A total of 904 candidates were in the fray in this seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha elections. Prominent among them are Prime Minister and Senior BJP leader Narendra Modi, party leaders Anurag Thakur, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Kangana Ranaut, Congress leader Manish Tiwari and Vikramaditya Singh, RJD leader Misa Bharti, and Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee. In addition, assembly by-elections for six constituencies in Himachal Pradesh and one seat each in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal was also conducted yesterday.
This seventh phase marked a grand finish to the world’s largest polling marathon that began on 19th of April.
The Election Commission in a statement said, polling across the country was held smoothly and peacefully across seven phases. The Commission led by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar along with Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Dr. Sukhbir Singh Sandhu kept a close watch on every aspect of the poll process during the seven phase General Elections. It said, stringent security measures were in place creating a conducive environment for voters to cast their vote without fear or intimidation. The Commission added that with meticulous advance planning and rigorous training of election officials, elections this time have seen a drastic reduction in the number of repolls, demonstrating the robustness of the election process.
The counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections will take place on Tuesday.
Disclaimer: This press release is sourced from News On AIR, Prasar Bharti and Press Information Bureau India (PIB).
