India General Election 2024 Live Updates: Phase 7 turnout crosses 58% at 5 pm; TMC, PDP skip INDIA bloc meet at Kharge’s residence

A voter turnout of 58.34 per cent was recorded till 5 pm in the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha elections across 57 parliamentary constituencies across eight states and Union Territories today. After the seven-phase elections draw to a close, all eyes will shift to the exit polls which will start emerging soon after the voting period officially ends till results are declared on June 4.

The voter turnout in Punjab reached 55.20 per cent at 5 pm in the seventh and final phase of voting in the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday.

A day after the Congress party had decided to boycott all Exit Poll discussions, saying that they do not want to indulge in speculation and slugfest for TRP, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said that all parties of the Opposition’s INDIA bloc have now decided to take part in the debates.

Senior leaders of the Opposition's INDIA bloc met at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence on Saturday, the last day of polling in the Lok Sabha elections.

The Himachal Pradesh unit of the Bharatiya Janata Paty (BJP) filed a complaint against Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, alleging violation of the Model Code of Conduct, for wearing a National Students' Union of India (NSUI) scarf while casting his vote in Nadaun.

The complaint was filed with the Chief Electoral Officer.

Nadaun falls in the Hamirpur Lok Sabha constituency.

Senior INDIA bloc leaders met at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence to discuss the alliance’s strategy for counting of votes, which is scheduled for June 4. However, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) were conspicuous by their absence. Opposition leaders who attended the meeting included Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Anil Desai, Sitaram Yechury, Arvind Kejriwal, Bhagwat Mann, Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha, Champai Soren, Kalpana Soren, T R Baalu, Farooq Abdullah, D Raja and Mukesh Sahani, news agency PTI reported.

West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee cast her vote in the seventh and last phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday.

(Express photo by Partha Paul)

The voter turnout in Bihar reached 42.95 per cent at 3 pm in the seventh and final phase of voting in the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday.

Along with Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, Bihar is one of the three states that saw polling in all seven phases of the elections.

The voter turnout in West Bengal reached 58.46 per cent at 3 pm in the seventh and final phase of voting in the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday.

The state also saw incidents of violence during the polling process.

The voter turnout in Uttar Pradesh reached 46.83 per cent in the seventh and final phase of voting in the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday.

The voter turnout in Jharkhand touched 60.14 per cent in Jharkhand in the seventh and final phase of voting in the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday.

A voter turnout of 49.68 per cent was recorded till 3 pm in the seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha elections across 57 parliamentary constituencies across eight states and Union Territories today, the Election Commission said.

Punjab recorded a voter turnout of 46.38% at 3 pm.

Ludhiana recorded a voter turnout of 43.82% at 3 pm.

Chandigarh records 52.61 percent voter turnout till 3 pm.

BJD is winning 85 Assembly seats after 3rd phase polls and with the 4th phase tomorrow, it will end up winning more than 115 seats out of a total of 147 and 15 Lok Sabha seats out of 21; and form Government in Odisha with more than 3/4th majority, the party said in a post on X, quoting a spokesperson.

Amid heatwave conditions across large parts of North India, voter turnout in the seventh and last phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on Saturday reached 40 per cent at 1 pm, as per the Election Commission’s Voter Turnout app.

The app, which shows real-time approximate turnout percentages, showed an overall turnout of 40.09 per cent at 1 pm for the 57 Lok Sabha constituencies across eight states and Union Territories. Turnout in Himachal Pradesh, which had all its four seats go to polls on Saturday, was the highest at 1 pm at 48.63 per cent, while Bihar’s eight seats had the lowest turnout at 35.65 per cent.

Top leaders of the INDIA bloc will meet here on Saturday to discuss their strategy for the counting of votes on June 4, even as the TMC and PDP are set to skip the meeting.

Senior leaders of the Congress, CPI-M, CPI, DMK, AAP, RJD, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) will hold discussions at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence this afternoon.

TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already said they will not attend the meeting as there are elections in the state, while PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti is likely to skip the meeting.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann are also likely to attend the meeting, besides senior Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and K C Venugopal.

DMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin said party leader T R Baalu will attend the meeting.

Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate Ferozepur Rajesh Dhiman says,” A case has come before us where BSP candidate Surinder Kamboj made a video of himself casting his vote. FIR has been registered against him for violation of rules. We urge all candidates to follow the rules and the law…Voting in the constituency is being conducted peacefully.”

BSP candidate for Ferozepur Lok Sabha seat Surinder Kamboj has been booked for allegedly getting his video recorded while casting his vote and making it public, officials said on Saturday.

Kamboj was filmed by an unidentified person while casting his vote at a polling station in Guruharsahai's Jiva Rai village.

Ferozepur Deputy Commissioner Rajesh Dhiman said Kamboj made the video public.

A case has been registered against Kamboj and an unidentified person under relevant sections of the Representation of People's Act, 1951 and the Indian Penal Code.

A voter turnout of 40.09 per cent was recorded till 1 pm in the seventh and final phase.

Here’s a state-wise breakdown

Exit polls in India are conducted by a number of organisations, often in tie-ups with media organisations. The surveys can be conducted face to face or online.

Exit polls give an indication about how people voted in an election. They are arrived at on the basis of interviews with voters right after they exit the polling stations. Apart from this, other calculations related to voter data are also considered.

He says, "The meeting will begin at 2 pm. Our alliance will have discussions related to the elections. INDIA Alliance will get a good number of seats...All of that (NDA 400 paar slogan) is wrong..."

Top leaders of the opposition grouping will be meeting in the national capital in the afternoon to assess their performance in the Lok Sabha election and chalk out their strategy ahead of the results.

Sita, the sister-in-law of jailed former chief minister Hemant Soren, claimed that the voting process was being intentionally delayed.

"I have visited several booths in Dumka urban and found irregularities. I have informed the deputy commissioner in this regard. Inexperienced booth level officers (BLOs) have been deployed due to which electors are facing trouble," Sita said.

She alleged, "The delay is being done deliberately. I will write to Election Commission to cancel the voting here and conduct a re-poll." Sita raised the issue after receiving complaints from voters about delays at booth numbers 44 and 45.

Sita, a three-time JMM MLA, joined the BJP on March 20, citing "isolation" and "neglect" by the JMM since the death of her husband, Durga Soren, in 2009.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) K Ravi Kumar denied her allegations and said polling is underway smoothly across three Lok Sabha constituencies — Dumka, Rajmahal and Godda.

TMC, ISF and BJP workers clashed in various parts of violence-prone Jadavpur and Diamond Harbour constituencies.

Although the poll panel has claimed that voting has been peaceful so far, it said it has received 1,450 complaints until 11 am from different political parties alleging EVM malfunctions and agents being stopped from entering booths.

n a phased election such as the current one, the first and last days of voting also become big events. But for many in India, the most awaited event is the day when exit polls are released.

Exit polls give estimates about how people voted in an election. They are arrived at on the basis of interviews with voters right after they exit the polling stations, as well as other calculations related to voter data.

A large number of Indians give the same importance to exit polls as they do to the actual results.

The science of surveys, which includes exit polls, works on the assumption that data were collected after interviewing a large number of respondents using a structured questionnaire, whether over the telephone or face-to-face.

"I have visited several booths in the city and found irregularities about which I have informed the DC. I have been receiving calls from everywhere. I will write to the Election Commission to cancel the election and order repolling," says BJP Dumka candidate Sita Soren.

The Dumka constituency lies at the heart of Jharkhand’s migrant labour crisis, which is witnessing a heated electoral fight between BJP candidate Sita Soren – the elder daughter-in-law of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) supremo Shibu Soren – and JMM veteran Nalin Soren, a founding member of the tribal party.

This contest is said to be more than an electoral tussle – it is a fight for dominance between the JMM and the BJP over a seat known as a traditional JMM stronghold from where Shibu Soren has won multiple times.

As voting in the last phase of Lok Sabha polls 2024 draws to a close on Saturday (June 1), all eyes will be on the exit polls, which will give an idea of how India voted in the 18th general elections.

The exit poll results will start coming in after 6 pm on June 1 (Saturday). The counting of votes and result declaration will take place on June 4 (Tuesday).

It’s a crucial fight for Tejashwi who, having proved the stomach for it in the 2020 Assembly polls, now needs to show he can continue irrespective of repeated setbacks and loss of power courtesy a vacillating Nitish Kumar. How 34-year-old Tejashwi performs could also determine INDIA’s fortunes at the Centre, with a crucial 40 seats at stake in Bihar, of which the BJP-led NDA had won 39 in 2019.

For nearly a month now, the man on whom the INDIA campaign almost entirely rests in Bihar, has been on the road rallying support for the coalition, popping painkillers, wearing a lumbo sacral belt for back relief, and using a wheelchair when he can.