New Delhi: High voter turnout continued to be the high point of this year’s Lok Sabha elections as even the sixth phase of voting on Thursday registered a 64 per cent polling.
However, among the metropolitan cities, Mumbai appeared less enthusiastic the voter turnout was less than 55 per cent. In Chennai it was 73 per cent.
As per provisional data released by the Election Commission, only 53 per cent of Mumbaikars exercised their franchise.
So far, the national average voter turnout is 66 per cent, which is significantly higher than 57.5 per cent recorded in 2009.
The EC is hoping for the highest ever voter turnout in this Lok Sabha election.
Eleven states and one Union Territory went to the polls in this phase and the race to the Lok Sabha crossed the half-way mark with the stakes high for the Congress and BJP.
The highest turnout, 83 per cent, was recorded in the lone seat of Puducherry, followed by West Bengal (82 per cent for six seats) and 73 per cent for all the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu in a single phase. Only two states — Rajasthan (59.2 per cent for five seats) and Maharashtra (55.33 per cent for 19 seats) registered below 60 per cent turnout in the sixth phase.
Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag constituency, where PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti is in the fray, recorded the lowest turnout, 28 per cent, but it was still higher than the 26.9 per cent recorded in 2009.
About 18 crore voters were eligible to exercise their franchise to decide the electoral fate of nearly 2,100 candidates including political heavyweights like Salman Khurshid, Sushma Swaraj and Mulayam Singh Yadav.
