The ballots are in: 60% vote in Ph 2
Millions on Friday voted to elect their Lok Sabha representatives in 88 constituencies across 12 states and one Union Territory, marking the end of the second of the sevenstage polls that saw citizens from strife-torn Manipur to politically crucial Maharashtra and from Jammu to Kerala exercise their franchise.
The provisional turnout stood at over 60% at 5pm, said the Election Commission of India (ECI), adding that it was expected to rise once the final numbers are tallied by the poll watchdog.
The overall turnout in the first and the largest phase, with 102 seats across 21 states and Union territories, has not yet been officially declared but officials have said it stood between 64% and 65%, roughly four percentage points lower than 2019.
The second phase saw 1,202 candidates, including three former chief ministers, in the fray.
With this, voting in 11 states and three UTs is over.
“Phase Two has been too good! Gratitude to the people across India who have voted today. The unparalleled support for NDA is going to disappoint the Opposition even more. Voters want NDA’s good governance. Youth and women voters are powering the strong NDA support,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X.
The next five phases will take place over the next month, with the results on June 4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a historic third consecutive term, hoping to become only the second PM after Jawaharlal Nehru to achieve this feat. The Opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) is aiming to use a mix of economic agenda and social redistribution promise to damage the Bharatiya Janata Party’s electoral coalition.
Turnout has been a creeping concern since the general elections first kicked off on April 19 with experts underlining voter apathy and the searing summer as possible reasons for the milder-than-usual turnout.
On the electoral rolls on Friday were 158.8 million voters, including 3.5 million first-time ones and 32.8 million people between the ages of 20 and 29. On April 19, 102 seats went to polls in the first phase (including some parts of the Outer Manipur constituency, where the remaining parts voted on Friday).
To be sure, the polls were originally slated for 89 seats, but the death of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Ashok Bhalavi in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul, led to ECI adjourning the election.
Six of the 88 seats — five in Assam and one in Jammu — were redrawn after a delimitation exercise in 2023. The 82 others saw a turnout of 69.6% in 2019. Six seats of these 88 seats are reserved for scheduled tribes, nine are reserved for scheduled castes.
Of these seats, 56 were held by the NDA, of which 47 were with the BJP. Twenty three were held by INDIA, of which 17 were with the Congress.
Focus was on the turnout in the 14 seats of Karnataka, where the ruling Congress is hoping to dent the BJP’s impressive record of winning 25 out of the 28 Lok Sabha seats five years ago.
Voting was also held in eight seats in Uttar Pradesh, including the national capital region cities of Noida and Ghaziabad.