LS Polls: 5th Phase Sees 57.5% Voter Turnout; Maharashtra Lowest At 49%

Pic courtesy Election Commission

New Delhi: The fifth phase of polling in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections saw an overall voter turnout of 57.51 per cent.

The fate of 49 Parliamentary constituencies were decided on Monday, across 8 states and union territories.

As per provisional Election Commission of India (ECI) figures (turnout could go up marginally in the final data), West Bengal led the turnout count in phase 5 with 73 per cent.

Ladakh saw 67.15 per cent voter turnout, followed by Jharkhand at 63 per cent, Odisha at 60.72 per cent, Uttar Pradesh was 57.79 per cent, Jammu & Kashmir 54.67 per cent, Bihar 52.60 per cent and Maharashtra 49.01 per cent.

With Maharashtra recording the lowest voter turnout in the fifth phase, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray said there were a lot of complaints from electors about facilities outside polling booths.

“To the @ECISVEEP, absolute pathetic management. An agency that boasts about One Nation, One Poll, cannot conduct an election process that is smooth in even 1 constituency, forget the entire city. Citizens have complained about heat, suffocation in booths, possibly purposeful slow voting (voter suppression) especially in selective constituencies. The lack of separate lines for senior citizens and pregnant women in many booths, absence of fans, water and shade have angered the citizens. We Mumbaikars stepped out to vote, but your pathetic management/ purposeful voter suppression methods tried to keep us away from the booths. Nonetheless people stepped out and voted!” Aaditya posted on X.

Jammu & Kashmir’s Baramulla constituency recorded the highest polling percentage (54.57 per cent) in 39 years.