Lok Sabha Elections 2024: 65.68% voter turnout in third phase, 57% seats saw a decline

According to the EC data, the turnout increased in 40 seats, while the remaining 53 (or 57%) saw a decline in the voter participation. The turnout of male voters was almost 2.5 percentage points higher than female voters at 66.89% and 64.41% respectively.

Of the 10 seats that saw the biggest dip in turnouts this time, eight were from Gujarat (Bardoli, Dahod, Ahmedabad East, Navsari, Vadodara, Gandhinagar, Mahesana and Amreli). Bardoli in southern Gujarat reported the biggest decline in turnout — of 9 percentage points. Gandhinagar, from where Union Home Minister Amit Shah contested as the incumbent, saw a decline of 6 percentage points. Polling in 25 of the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat was held in the third phase; in Surat, the BJP candidate was elected unopposed following the rejection of the nomination papers of the Congress candidate and withdrawal of nominations by other candidates.

Turnout of women voters was higher in 16 constituencies spread across Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Karnataka, West Bengal and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. In 2019, 18 of these same 93 seats had a higher female turnout than male voters.

Out of the 10 seats where the gap between male-female turnout was the highest, nine were in Gujarat. Male turnout in Porbandar, Jamnagar, Kheda and Rajkot was more than 10 percentage points higher than the female turnout.

While mostly the turnout patterns were same for male and female voters, in a handful of seats the trends diverged. In Gwalior, for instance, the male turnout increased by 7 percentage points, while the female turnout decreased by 2.6 percentage points. Last time, Gwalior was among the seats with higher female turnout (4 percentage points), but this time the male turnout was over 4 percentage points higher than female.

Amid criticism from the Opposition for delaying the release of the official turnout figures for phase one and two, the EC had issued a statement on Tuesday night that the provisional turnout in the third phase had been 64.4% as at 11.40 pm and the final figures would be released by Saturday. The day after polling, the Voter Turnout app of the EC showed the turnout had reached 65%.

“The final turnout will only be available post-counting, with counting of postal ballots and its addition to the total vote count,” the EC said in its statement on Saturday.

Of the 11 states and UTs that saw polling in phase three, four had higher female turnout than male — Bihar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Goa and West Bengal. The male turnout was higher in Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.