Lok Sabha elections: At 60.13%, voter turnout dips, Banaskantha bucks the trend

The highest turnout in the elections held since then was reported in 2017 when 69.01 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the Assembly election held in the backdrop of the Patidar quota agitation. The 2022 state elections saw a turnout of 64.84 per cent. The Lok Sabha elections are normally held in the summer while the Assembly elections in the winter.

Of the over 4.7 crore voters in Gujarat, approximately 60.13 per cent turned out to vote on Tuesday in the third phase of the elections, as against 64.11 per cent in 2019, the EC data showed.

Ahead of the polls, BJP had won the Surat seat uncontested after the nomination of the Congress candidate was rejected and the eight others in the fray withdrew from contest.

Across the state, 56.56 per cent of women voted, far lower than that the 63.52 per cent figure for men.

At least 12 constituencies saw polling drop by over 5 per cent when compared to the 2019 polls. Bardoli on Tuesday reported a turnout of 64.81 per cent, 9.08 percentage points lower than 2019. This was the highest departure recorded across the state on Tuesday. The least difference in turnout was recorded in Anand – it saw a turnout of 65.04 per cent on Tuesday, a dip of only 2 per cent since 2019.

In 2019, Banaskantha had reported a turnout of 64.68 per cent, which rose to 69.62 per cent on Tuesday – the highest for this constituency since the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. This was the only seat in Gujarat where both BJP and Congress had fielded women candidates, Rekha Chaudhary and Geniben Thakor, respectively.

Banaskantha district reported 65.85 per cent female voter turnout against a male turnout of 73.16 per cent on Tuesday. In the 2019 polls, the figures were 59.82 per cent and 69.08 per cent, respectively.

The Assembly constituency-wise results further reveal that in Banaskantha, among the seven constituencies, Tharad recorded the highest turnout at 78.70 per cent. Tharad is the Assembly constituency represented by Gujarat Speaker Shankar Chaudhary. Similarly, Vav, the Assembly constituency of sitting Congress MLA Geniben Thakor – who contested her first Lok Sabha election from Banaskantha – also recorded a high turnout of 69.43 per cent.

On the reason behind Banaskantha reporting an increase in turnout, Gujarat Congress president Shaktisinh Gohil attributed it to the popularity of the party candidate. “Congress candidate (Geniben Thakor) is very popular among all communities, which is one of the factors that the turnout was high in Banaskantha this time.”

“The BJP realised that it was losing and thus tried hard in the last hours to push voting. Thus, both parties tried to ensure as much as voting as possible,” he told The Indian Express.

BJP leaders, however, expressed confidence that they would win all the 25 seats, in spite of the low turnout, which they blamed on the severe heatwave conditions. “Our margins will be impacted in some seats, but we will not lose the seats,” said a party leader from Ahmedabad.

The Banaskantha district administration, too, had in efforts to increase the turnout, especially among women. “Self-help groups, anganwadi workers, female cooperative workers from the same communities have been mobilised for the purpose,” Banaskantha collector Varunkumar Jagdish Baranwal had told The Indian Express.

While Amreli and Valsad saw the lowest and the highest turnouts, respectively, the votes polled in these constituencies also dropped. The Amreli seat saw a turnout of 50.29 per cent, which was lower than the 2019 turnout of 55.75 per cent. Valsad seat saw a turnout of 72.71 per cent, a dip from the 75.25 per cent turnout in 2019. As per districtwise data, Dang, which is a part of Valsad constituency, recorded the highest turnout among districts at 78.79 per cent. Dang also saw the highest turnout of women at 77.43 per cent, while Narmada district saw the highest number of men voting at 80.36 per cent.

Unlike 2019, when the four tribal constituencies – Valsad, Dahod, Chhota Udepur and Bardoli – crossed the 70 per cent polling mark, except Valsad, none crossed the figure on Tuesday.

WITH INPUTS FROM SOHINI GHOSH