94 seats see dip in vote count from 2019; overall turnout down by 1.5 pc points

While polling is complete in 485 seats out of the total 543 – the last phase is June 1 – the overall turnout figures for six phases do not include 14 seats of Assam and 5 of Jammu & Kashmir, where delimitation has changed boundaries since the last election.

As many as 94 of the 466 seats saw a decrease in the absolute number of voters this time compared to 2019.

Nagaland had the highest decrease in the number of voters (over 2.41 lakh). Mathura, Sidhi, Khajuraho, Pathanamithitta, Baghpat (UP) and Jabalpur (MP) saw a decrease of over 1 lakh voters each.

Of the 466 seats, voter turnout percentages declined in 301 constituencies compared to 2019.

However, given the overall increase in the total number of eligible voters across the country – from 91 crore in 2019 to 96.8 crore in 2024 – a dip in turnout percentage doesn’t necessarily mean fewer people voted. In fact, over 2.4 crore more voters cast their votes in these seats this time compared to 2019.

Nevertheless, in 94 (or 20.17% of the) seats, the absolute number of voters has dropped, according to an analysis by The Indian Express.

2024 vs 2019

More than half of these seats are in four states – Tamil Nadu (18), Uttar Pradesh (17), Kerala (12), and Rajasthan (12). The decline is significant given that only three of the 94 seats (New Delhi, Mumbai South and Andaman & Nicobar Islands) have seen a reduction in the total number of voters enrolled.

Notably, Kerala and Uttarakhand had the highest proportion of seats with reduced absolute numbers of voters. In Uttarakhand, 60% (or three out of its five Lok Sabha seats) saw fewer voters than in 2019; and in Kerala, 60% (12 out of its 20 seats) experienced a decline in the absolute number of voters.

The majority of these Lok Sabha constituencies are currently held by the BJP (50), which isn’t surprising given the party’s sweep in the 2019 polls, where it won 303 of the 543 seats. This is followed by the Congress (14 seats), DMK (11), BSP (4), and united Shiv Sena (3).

Across the 94 seats that saw a decline in the actual number of voters since 2019, the decrease ranged from as little as 1,832 in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur to 2,41,635 in Nagaland.

On average, these 94 seats witnessed a drop of 41,880 voters, despite the number of eligible electors rising by 88,244 since 2019.

The sharpest drop in turnout percentage and actual number of voters was recorded in Nagaland’s lone Lok Sabha seat – while turnout fell by nearly 25 percentage points from 2019, the absolute number of voters dropped by 2.42 lakh despite an increase in the number of eligible electors by 1.04 lakh.

5 states with biggest dip in voters

At 18 of 39 total seats, Tamil Nadu has the most seats that saw the number of voters decline from the last Lok Sabha polls despite overall increase in voter enrolment. Two Chennai seats – Central and North – saw the biggest such drops at 54,072 and 53,403 voters, respectively.

Uttar Pradesh, at 17 seats, had the next highest declines in the number of voters. Mathura, where the sitting MP is the BJP’s Hema Malini, saw the biggest drop in the number of voters at 1.45 lakh despite a 1.22 lakh increase in the number of eligible electors. The turnout percentage in this seat also fell considerably from 60.74% in 2019 to 49.41% in 2024.

Among the 94 seats that saw absolute number of voters drop, the Jaipur Rural seat in Rajasthan had the biggest increase in the total eligible voters at 2.32 lakh. The seat saw its turnout percentage drop from 64.7% in 2019 to 56.7% in 2024.

The data showed that Sidhi (Madhya Pradesh), Mathura (Uttar Pradesh), Khajuraho (MP), Rewa( MP) and Pathanamthitta (Kerala) all had an over 10 percentage-point decrease. On the other hand, Shillong, one of the two seats in Meghalaya, had the highest increase (8.44 percentage points).

The sixth phase of polling on May 25 saw an overall turnout of 63.37% in 58 seats across eight states and Union Territories, including the new seat of Anantnag-Rajouri. In 2019, without the Anantag-Rajouri seat, the turnout had been 64.73%.