The turnout, which is lower than the polling in each of the earlier six phases, is provisional and will inch up as more polling parties return and file their reports.All the polling figures constantly updated by EC via its voter turnout app are based on EVM votes; postal ballots are counted only on results day.
The all-India polling percentage in the 2024 Lok Sabha poll can be known only after Form 17C data is finalised for Phase 7. However, the turnout for the first six phases — covering 485 seats excluding Surat that did not see a contest — works out to 66%.
The all-India turnout in the 2019 general election — for all 543 seats and inclusive of postal ballot votes — was 67.4%.
EC on Saturday released a statement thanking all stakeholders for braving tough weather and logistical challenges and helping maintain law and order so as to make the 2024 general election a “grand success”. “The collective efforts of voters, political parties, candidates, election personnel and security forces during polling have strengthened Indian democracy, deserving great respect and appreciation. We, the people, have kept the wheels of democracy spinning,” said an EC spokesperson on behalf of chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar and election commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu.
Notwithstanding the criticism directed at it for being soft towards the party in office, particularly while reviewing MCC complaints against the prime minister, EC thanked all parties and candidates, calling them a “critical pivot of Indian elections”.
Among states that voted on Saturday, West Bengal maintained its high-turnout streak with 73.4%polling. However, the state witnessed disruptions: a local mob looted EVMs from a polling station in Jaynagar (SC) parliamentary constituency and threw a control unit and two ballot units of EVMs, along with two VVPAT machines, in a pond. An FIR was registered and fresh papers and EVM were provided to the sector officer, enabling uninterrupted polling.
Jharkhand and Odisha also fared well on the polling meter, both logging turnout of 70.7%. Himachal Pradesh witnessed a turnout of 69.8%, followed by Chandigarh with 67.9%.
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar continued to report moderate turnouts at 55.6% and 51.6% respectively. Varanasi, from where PM Narendra Modi is seeking re-election, polled 56.3% votes. Ghazipur witnessed a turnout of 55.2% and Gorakhpur 54.7%. Salempur saw the least polling in the state at 51.3%.
Punjab — which is witnessing a three-cornered fight among Congress, AAP and BJP — saw a moderate 59.5% turnout, way less than the 65.9% polling it had seen in 2019. Constituencies like Amritsar, Ludhiana and Hoshiarpur, in particular, witnessed low voter interest.
The total electorate in the current poll was 97.6 crore, of which 57.8 crore had voted until Phase 6. Even if 62% of the electorate in 57 remaining seats have voted in Phase 7, the absolute number of votes polled would have crossed 64 crore, up from 61.4 crore who voted in 2019.
In terms of gender-wise voting, turnout among women exceeded the male polling percentage in two of the last six phases, as it did in 173 of the 486 parliamentary constituencies where polling was completed by Phase 6.