Lok Sabha Elections: Phase VI [Voter Turnout Review]

Penultimate Stage for General Election 2024:

With a little over 7 crore votes cast out of 11.13 crore eligible voters in phase six of voting, the Lok Sabha election 2024 completed its penultimate stage. So far, voting has been completed for 486 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats. In the sixth phase, 58 constituencies in 8 states and UTs witnessed voting. In this phase with over 7 crore people, 61.95 percent were males, 64.95 percent were females and 28.95 percent were third-gender electors, who exercised their voting rights. West Bengal’s Bishnupur saw the highest voter turnout at 85.91 percent while Uttar Pradesh’s Phulpur had the lowest turnout at 48.91 percent.

Voter Turnout Statistics:
Following are the voter turnout statistics shared by ECI on its Voter Turnout app.

Sr. No.	State	No. of PC’s	Turnout
Sr. No.	State	No. of PC’s	2024	2019
1	Bihar	8	57.18%	58.1%
2	Haryana	10	64.80%	74.3%
3	Jammu and Kashmir	1	55.40%	49.3%
4	Jharkhand	4	65.39%	69.1%
5	NCT of Delhi	7	58.69%	68.3%
6	Odisha	6	74.45%	76.1%
7	Uttar Pradesh	14	54.04%	60.5%
8	West Bengal	8	82.71%	78.6%
Overall		58	63.37%	66.78%

Region-wise Analysis:

North:

The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir constituency of Anantnag-Rajouri witnessed voting of 55.4 percent. This is the highest turnout in 35 years and a welcome change in a region otherwise engulfed in constant political turmoil.

In this phase, 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh and 8 in Bihar witnessed polling. Uttar Pradesh remains a lower voter turnout state. Important seats such as Prayagraj, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, and Sultanpur had lower turnout than previous editions. In Prayagraj, voter turnout clocked at 51.82 percent; in 2019 it was at 53.40 percent. Azamgarh and Jaunpur had a voting percentage of 58.40 percent and 59.40 percent respectively; in 2024 it was 56.16 percent and 55.59 percent. Sultanpur saw decreased voting from 58.10 percent in 2019 to 55.63 percent in 2024.

Throughout all 8 constituencies in which voting happened in Bihar, the overall state voter turnout was at 57.18%. Gopalganj had a turnout of 52.32 percent to that of 58.80 percent in 2019. In Valmiki Nagar, it was 60.19 percent in 2024 compared to the 2019 percentage of 65.

All the constituencies in the state of Haryana went for polling. The average voter turnout for Haryana was 64.80 percent compared to 74.3 percent in 2019. The average voter turnout in Faridabad was the lowest at 60.52 percent, whereas in Sirsa it was the highest at 69.77 percent. Along with the Lok Sabha election, by-polls for the Assembly seat of Karnal also took place where the current CM of Haryana is contesting the seat for assembly.

Delhi failed to overcome urban voter apathy witnessed in other phases. Overall voter turnout in NCT Delhi was at 58.69 percent whereas in 2019 it was much larger at 68.3 percent. Except for Northeast Delhi, which showed 62.89 percent of all other constituencies, had lower than 60 percent voter turnout.

East:

Eight constituencies in West Bengal were included in the phase six. The state turnout in this phase stood at 82.71 percent, greater than the previous overall count of 78.6 percent. Bengal has been one of the outstanding states in this election. Tamluk constituency saw the largest turnout at 84.79 percent against 79.20 percent in 2019.

Jharkhand underwent polling at four of its constituencies with the overall voting percentage of 65.39 percent.

Five constituencies in Odisha had an overall voter turnout of 74.45 percent.

Conclusion:

Apathy amongst the urban electorate also showed its pattern in Delhi. The change in voting percentage in Delhi is a massive 10 percent drop. While the ratio of voters across urban and rural is 1:4, urban voters are instrumental in influencing some of the key decisions of the union government.

One of the biggest highlights of the voter turnout amongst the women voters. As we saw before in the fifth phase female voter turnout was 63 percent, and 61.48 percent men exercised their franchise in six States and two Union Territories on Monday. In this phase, women’s turnout far exceeded that of men. The voting percentage of women was 64.95 percent whereas for men it was 61.95 percent. The difference of 3 percent is critical when it comes to make or break in any election. Tamil Nadu is a good example of this. Since the assembly elections of 2011, women have decisively voted in favor of Jayalalithaa. In both elections, 2016 and 2021 we saw a significant rise in women voters. Women voting proved more decisive, as in 2016 Jayalalithaa managed to retain her CM seat despite a long history of alternating regime change between AIADMK and DMK. Additionally, in 2021, the same women voters were instrumental in giving DMK the CM seat.

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