The voter turnout for the just-concluded Lok Sabha poll was the highest ever, ever since the first elections in 1951, at a tentative 67.11 percent, a jump of 1.16 per cent across 542 constituencies, barring Vellore where polls were rescinded.
But, the Election Commission (EC) figures are still provisional and are subject to change depending on the turnout in Vellore. The poll panel is yet to announce a fresh date for elections in Vellore. The EC had cancelled the polls there on the grounds of excessive use of money power.
The overall turnout in 2014 was 65.95 per cent. Lakshadweep recorded the highest turnout at 84.96 percent in 2019 LS poll, north-eastern states of Tripura (83.20 percent), Nagaland (83.09 percent) and Manipur (82.69 percent) were not too far behind. The overall high turnout in West Bengal at 81.91 percent was still short of the 2014 figure of 82.22 percent.
The highest increase in the turnout between 2014 and 2019 was in Madhya Pradesh (71.2 percent from 61.61 percent , a jump of 9.59 percent), followed by Himachal Pradesh (71.52 percent from 64.45 percent). The biggest dip in terms of turnout was in Jammu and Kashmir, with 29.39 percent polling which is 20.33 percent lower than 49.72 percent recorded in 2014.
Two Hindi heartland recorded Bihar and UP recorded less than 60 percent turnouts - 58.08 percent and 59.6 percent respectively. Goa recorded 74.94 percent, Gujarat 64.11 percent, Haryana 70.30 percent, Jharkhand 66.83 percent, Karnataka 68.63 percent and Delhi 60.63 percent.+
In 2019, the voter turnout saw a decreasing trend from the first to the seventh phase, which took place on Sunday. According to data provided by the EC, in phase one, the turnout was 69.61 per cent. It went down marginally to 69.44 per cent in phase two and further down to 68.40 per cent in the third phase. In the fourth phase, the turnout saw a dip of nearly three per cent and stood at 65.50 per cent. In the fifth phase, the turnout was 64.16 per cent, but went up marginally to 64.40 per cent in the sixth and penultimate phase. In the seventh and the last phase, it was 65.16 per cent, according to the EC’s Voter Turnout app.
The cumulative turnout figure of the first six phases stood at 67.34 per cent, which is 1.21 per cent more than the corresponding constituencies in 2014.
The lowest being in first election held in 1951 with 45.67% voter participation. Thereafter turnouts were 47.74% in 1957, 55.42% in 1962, 61.33% in 1967 , 55.29% in 1971, 60.49% in 1977, 56.92% in 1980, 64.01% in 1984-85, 61.95% in 1989 (when National Front won under V P Singh), 55.88% in 1991-92 (during which Congress president Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated), 57.94% in 1996, 61.97% in 1998, 59.99% in 1999, 57.98% in 2004, 58.19% in 2009 and 66.44% in 2014.