First phase of India election ends with over 60% voter turnout

POLLING for the first phase of India’s marathon national elections on Friday (19) concluded with more than 60 per cent turnout. Nearly 70 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the first phase of the previous elections held in 2019.

A man has his finger marked with ink after casting his vote at a polling station as voting starts during the first phase of India’s general election in Chennai, capital of India’s Tamil Nadu state on April 19, 2024

The Election Commission of India said the turnout was 60 per cent till around 5 pm local time, with an hour left for the closing.

On Friday, voting was held in 102 constituencies in 21 states and Union Territories across the country in which fates of 1,625 candidates were decided by more than 166 million voters. Voting started at 7 am local time.

Of the Indian states West Bengal saw the highest turnout of 77.57 per cent, India Today reported. Three constituencies in the northern part of the state were held on the first day and all of them were won by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of prime minister Narendra Modi in 2019.

Read: Sporadic violence, gunfire in Bengal, Manipur as world’s largest democracy votes

The lowest turnout was recorded in Bengal’s neighbouring state of Bihar where it was 46.32 per cent, the India Today report added.

All 39 parliamentary seats in the southern state of Tamil Nadu went to polls on the first day and there, 62.08 per cent voter turnout was seen, the report added. The BJP could win no seat in the state in the 2019 election and made desperate campaigning this time to reverse the trend.

Read: Google Doodle celebrates India polls; Modi tweets in 6 languages urging people to vote

Violence was also reported in some constituencies of Bengal and Manipur, the northeastern state which has witnessed deadly ethnic clashes since May last year, leading to deaths, injuries and displacement of many people. Over 68 per cent of voter turnout was reported about Manipur, where the general mood was opposed to election this year.

In Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous and politically most crucial state, five constituencies went to elections in the first phase and the turnout was reportedly around 57.54 per cent, India Today said.

A number of prominent ministers in the Modi government besides opposition leaders went to polling on the first day of the election. Among them were road transport minister Nitin Gadkari, earth sciences minister Kiren Rijiju, minister of state for home Nisith Pramanik and environment minister Bhupendra Yadav, among others. Among the opposition leaders contesting on the day were former Indian finance minister P Chidambaram of the Indian National Congress and his son Karti Chidambaram from Tamil Nadu.

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev and Patanjali Ayurved’s managing director Acharya Balkrishna also cast their votes in Haridwar in the northern state of Uttarakhand.

Besides the general elections, state elections in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in north-eastern India were also held the same day.

Earlier in the day, Modi took to X to urge citizens to vote in "record numbers".

"I particularly call upon the young and first time voters to vote in large numbers. After all, every vote counts and every voice matters," he tweeted.

Home minister Amit Shah also urged citizens to vote in "large numbers".

Of the 102 seats that went to polling on Friday, the National Democratic Alliance led by Modi’s BJP could win 41 in the 2019 elections while 45 went to the now-defunct opposition bloc United Progressive Alliance led by the Indian National Congress.

This time, however, six of these constituencies have been redrawn as part of delimitation.

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