Lok Sabha Elections 2024 | Record voter turnout keeps Andhra parties on edge

While 80.66% of the eligible voters cast their votes through EVMs, a total of 4,44,216 votes of employees on election duty were cast through postal ballot. Additionally, the elderly, disabled, and seriously ill people cast 53,573 votes through the vote-from-home option.

Hyderabad: Both the ruling and opposition camps in Andhra Pradesh are confident about winning the simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and Assembly in the state, which set a nationwide record for the highest voter turnout in the four phases of elections held so far.

While 80.66 per cent of the eligible voters cast their votes through EVMs, a total of 4,44,216 votes of employees on election duty were cast through postal ballot. Additionally, the elderly, disabled, and seriously ill people cast 53,573 votes through the vote-from-home option.

The final vote percentage has been set at 81.66 per cent, which is considered the highest in the country in the ongoing polls. The turnout is 2.12 per cent higher than the 2019 figure in the state.

The total number of votes cast through EVMs across Andhra Pradesh was 3,33,40,560. The male voters numbered 1,64,30,359 whereas the female voters numbered 1,69,08,684, and the third gender voters numbered 1,517.

While the incumbent YSRCP asserts that more women casting votes is a positive sign for the party, the opposition alliance led by the TDP argues that the record polling indicates anti-incumbency sentiment.

"On June 4, the counting will take place and on June 9, Jagan will once more take the oath of office as the chief minister in Vizag. All of the women, especially those in rural areas who had benefited from welfare schemes, overwhelmingly voted for the YSRCP. It will be a historic win," said cabinet minister Botsa Satyanarayana.

Adding fuel to this assertion, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy created a flutter two days ago, saying that on June 4, the entire nation's attention would turn towards Andhra Pradesh for the kind of victory that his party would secure.

During a visit to the office of IPAC, the poll consulting firm that has been engaged by the ruling party, Jagan claimed that his party would win more than 151 Assembly seats and 22 Lok Sabha seats it secured in the 2019 polls.

However, the TDP-led alliance is seeing the picture from another angle. 

"Yes, definitely the entire country will look up to Andhra Pradesh because we are going to win with a good number and a majority. We will defeat the violent anti-people party and form a people's government. Jagan's claim that they are winning is just another futile attempt to retain his cadre. Under the YSRCP government, the most affected are women and youth. Women and youth voted for our alliance as they believed that only then they could be safe and prosperous," TDP national spokesperson Jyotsna Tirunagari told DH.

The record voter turnout and the log gap between polling and counting have created an opportunity for punters to profit quickly by betting on the poll outcome. Trends in the betting arena have been changing on a daily basis.