As the Phase 3 of the General Elections 2024 is underway on Tuesday, the Election Commission of India has announced in its Voter Turnout Application that till 3:00 pm, 50.71% of the 17.24 crore electorates have cast their franchise. Polling is taking place for 93 Lok Sabha seats in eleven States and Union Territories including Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minster Amit Shah, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, etc cast their votes.
While the voter turnout for in the four Parliamentary Constituencies in West Bengal has recorded the highest percentage so far with 63.11%. It is closely followed by Assam’s four PCs with 63.08%. says ECI.
The Commission states that these figures are approximate trends which does not include data of postal ballot voting.
Meanwhile, on 6th May 2024, Congress President and Leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha) Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to the leaders of INDIA parties, regarding the discrepancies in the voting data released by Election Commission of India and non-publishing of registered voters.
In his letter, Kharge pointed out that perhaps for the first time in its history, ECI is yet to release actual voting numbers and has released only the final voting percentages of the First and Second phase of the Lok Sabha elections after a long delay which has raised serious doubts on the quality of the data and the credibility of the Commission.
He stressed the need of INDIA parties to collectively question ECI on the delay in the release of final voter turnout data for the first 2 phases of the General Elections – 11 days after Phase 1 and 4 days after Phase 2.
“When counting of votes throughout the country can be completed in a few hours time, why can’t the ECI give polling booth wise numbers even though more than 2 weeks have passed since phase 1?” Kharge questioned.
The Congress Chief also pointed out the difference of 5.5% for Phase 1 and 5.74% for Phase 2 in the estimated voter turnout and the final voter turnout.
Kharge asked what exactly is precluding the Commission from publishing the exact voter turnout in every Polling Station recorded by the Presiding Officer in Form 17C for the people instead of shifting the responsibility to candidates by saying the polling agents of candidates also have the details of voter.
