JOIN USHigh turnout in 11 states, UT
Voter turnout remained high in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections held in 117 parliamentary constituencies across 11 states and a Union Territory on Thursday.
At least nine polling and security personnel were killed and 12 injured in suspected terror attacks when they were returning with EVMs in Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir, PTI reports.
By and large, the Election Commission said, polling remained peaceful, except for some stray incidents of violence, including a rigging attempt by some miscreants at one of the polling booths in Kokrajhar in Assam where a police officer was killed and another injured in firing.
All the constituencies that went to polls witnessed an increase in polling percentage ranging from one to nearly 15 per cent over that of the last parliamentary elections, except in West Bengal where polling percentage was 82 per cent, about two per cent lower than the turnout recorded in 2009 elections.
Mumbaikars shed their sloth with 53 per cent turning up to vote. In Tamil Nadu, where single phase polls were held for all the 39 seats, voter turnout stood unchanged at 73 per cent, similar to that of 2009.
“We hope the turnout figures (in West Bengal) will marginally increase,” an EC officer said. According to provisional EC figures, constituencies in Bihar witnessed nearly 8 per cent increase in turnout over 2009 elections.
Jharkhand over 10 per cent, Assam about 6 per cent, Madhya Pradesh about 11 per cent, Rajasthan about 10 per cent, Chhattisgarh about 7 per cent, Puducherry 3 per cent and Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir one per cent.
The 12 constituencies that went to polls in UP saw an increase in voter turnout of over 15 per cent. The state also witnessed poll boycotts in 12 different locations in nine districts, including Aligarh, Ferozabad, Mainpuri and Etawah, “mainly protesting against non-development issues”. Miscreants tried to disturb polling at two locations, including in Ferozabad.
At Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir, children aged between 13-14 years injured some polling staff and security personnel by pelting stones at one of the polling booths.
In West Bengal, poll boycott was reported from five polling stations — 2 in Malda and 3 in Uttar Dinajpur.
The protest was related to development like construction of roads. Voter verifiable paper audit trail facility were provided at some of the constituencies in different states, including Raipur in Chhattisgarh, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudhir Tripathy said.
In all, elections to 349 of the 543 LS constituencies were concluded in the nine-phase poll. Polling for the remaining 194 will be held on April 30 (89 seats), May 7 (64) and May 12 (41).