67.3% voter turnout in Phase 4: Fate of 379 seats sealed

110 million voters across 9 states and 1 Union territory cast their votes in 96 Lok Sabha seats in the fourth phase of elections.

With a provisional voter turnout of 67.3%, more than 110 million people spread across nine states and one Union territory voted on Monday to elect their representatives in 96 Lok Sabha seats that went to poll in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections, marking the end of another high-stakes round that saw citizens from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh to Jammu & Kashmir exercise their franchise.

Voters queue up to cast their ballots at a polling station during the fourth phase of voting in India’s general election in Ganderbal district on Monday. (AFP)

With the end of this phase, a total of 379 seats — or nearly 70% of the Lok Sabha’s strength of 543 — have gone to the polls since the general elections kicked off on April 19. By now, all of India’s south has voted, as well as all of the country’s north-east. Barring a small part in Maharashtra (which votes in the next phase on May 20), nearly all of the country’s west has also been covered.

Monday’s was the second-largest phase in the 2024 election cycle in terms of number of constituencies and also saw voting for the 175 assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh and 28 assembly seats in Odisha.

The provisional turnout stood at 67.25% at 11.45pm, said the Election Commission of India (ECI), adding that it was expected to rise once the final numbers are tallied. In 2019, the turnout in these seats stood at 69.5%.

The turnout in the first phase was 66.14%, in the second phase this figure was 66.71% and it was 65.68% in the third phase, according to ECI numbers.

The remaining 164 seats will go to polls in final three phases on May 20, May 25 and June 1. Votes will be counted for both the Lok Sabha and the assembly elections on June 4.

“Polling was held smoothly and peacefully. The commission… kept a regular close watch on each and every aspect of the poll process in all the phases and issued necessary directions, wherever required,” ECI said in a statement on Monday evening.

“The weather was largely conducive and there was no marked heatwave-like conditions. Voters participated enthusiastically and visuals of voting happening under bright blue to overcast skies emerged from the 10 states/UTs,” it added.

In total, there were 1,717 candidates in the fray, including high-profile ones such as Samajwadi Party president, Akhilesh Yadav from Kannauj in UP, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Behrampur in West Bengal, BJP leader Giriraj Singh from Begusarai ib Bihar, Congress leader and sister of Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy YS Sharmila from Kadapa, TMC leader Mahua Moitra from Krishnanagar in West Bengal and Asaduddin Owasi from Hyderabad.

In terms of parliamentary constituency, the lowest turnout was reported from Srinagar at 38% as of 11.45pm. However, this was the still highest turnout that the city had seen since 1998, according to ECI. To be sure, a redrawing of the J&K’s PCs in a delimination exercise means that numbers are not directly comparable to previous rounds of voting. “In the Kashmir valley, voting took place for the Srinagar PC today. Amidst ample security, voters were seen queuing up peacefully at various polling stations in Srinagar to cast their votes,” ECI said.

Nearly all major urban centres voting on Monday saw a relatively low turnout. The voter turnout was 39.2% in Hyderabad, 51.3% in Pune, and 60.3% in Indore at 10pm.

The highest turnout of 81.2% was reported in the Bolpur PC in West Bengal.

West Bengal saw the highest turnout among the states, with voting percentage touching 78.4%, according to ECI’s provisional numbers, as compared to 82.8% for these seats in 2019. Polling in the state was largely peaceful barring a few instances of clashes reported between workers of the Congress and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Behrampur and clashes between workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and TMC at Monteswar in Bardhaman. An ECI official said that the voting was largely peaceful with a few stray incidents of violence. “We received more than 1,700 complaints across the states,” he said.

The second highest turnout of 71% among states was recorded in Madhya Pradesh, where eight seats in the Malwa region voted. In 2019, 75.7% voting was recorded in these seats. The highest voting was recorded from Mandsour PC (74.9%) and the lowest was from Indore (60.3%), where the nomination of Congress candidate Akshay Bam was rejected.

In Andhra Pradesh, where the voter turnout was 76.5% compared to 80.2% in 2019, sporadic incidents of clashes between YSRCP and opposition TDP workers was reported.

With Monday’s round of election, the fate of Andhra chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy and NDA alliance led by TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu has been sealed. The NDA has been aiming to end Jagan’s dominance; his YSRCP won 22 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats and 151 of the 175 assembly seats in 2019.

In Telangana, voting percentage stood at 64.7% as compared to 62.8% in 2019. Hyderabad police registered a case against BJP candidate Madhavi Latha from Hyderabad parliamentary constituency for allegedly trespassing into a polling station and asking Muslim women voters to remove their burqa and reveal their identity, officials said.

In Odisha, where simultaneous polling for Lok Sabha and assembly poll took place, 74% voting was recorded for four Lok Sabha and 28 of the 243 assembly seats as compared to 74.2% in 2019. One prestige battle is in Berhampur where the BJP is attempting to wrest back a BJD citadel which it had last won in 1999. It has also become a key battle because the BJP candidate is Pradip Panigrahy, once the aide of Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

In Uttar Pradesh, where polling took place in 13 Lok Sabha constituencies, 58.1% turnout was recorded till 11.45pm. The keenly watched seats in this phase of polls in the state include Kannauj, from where Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav is contesting, and Kheri where Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni, whose son is an accused in the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, is eyeing a hat-trick of wins. A bypoll is also being held for the Dadraul assembly constituency in Shahjahanpur district. The seat fell vacant following the death of BJP MLA Manvendra Singh on January 5.

Voter turnout was 59.6% in Maharashtra’s 11 Lok Sabha seats voting on Monday. Nandurbar PC saw the highest turnout at 67.1%, while Pune had the lowest.

For Bihar’s five seats, the voting percentage recorded was 57.1% as compared to 59.3% in 2019. Jharkhand, which saw beginning of its Lok Sabha poll schedule on Monday, recorded 65.2% voting in four of its 14 seats which went to the polls. The turnout in these seats was 66.9% in 2019.