Election turnout and Lok Sabha poll results: Here’s the story so far
Election officials at a counting station in Mumbai during the 1998 general elections | Photo: Reuters
The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday said the estimated voter turnout for phase I and II of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls was 66.14 per cent and 66.71 per cent respectively. A total of 189 seats went to the polls in the two phases. According to unofficial estimates, the turnout percentage is three to four percentage points lower than the turnout registered in these 189 seats five years ago. As voter turnout data since 1967 shows, an increase or decrease in voting percentage does not necessarily translate into the defeat of an incumbent or the opponent.
Cong releases another list, no decision on Amethi, Raebareli
The Congress on Tuesday fielded actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar from Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat in Haryana and former Union minister Anand Sharma from Kangra in Himachal Pradesh. Satpal Raizada, a former MLA from Himachal Pradesh’s Una, has been fielded by the Congress from the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat in the state and will contest against BJP candidate and Union Minister Anurag Thakur in the general elections. The party has not released names for the Amethi and Raebareli constituencies.
PM writes to Phase-III BJP candidates ahead of voting
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday wrote personalized letters to all the BJP candidates contesting the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 3. Modi addressed the candidates as his ‘colleague karyakarta’ and asked them to raise awareness among voters about Congress’ intention to ‘take reservation from SC, ST and OBC communities and give it away to their vote bank’. In his letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the Prime Minister praised his role as a minister in the abrogation of Article 370 and the passage of three penal laws.
First print: May 01, 2024 | 12:16 pm IST