New Delhi, May 28 (IANS) The Election Commission on Tuesday revised the voter turnout in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha election, spanning 58 seats in 8 states/UTs, to 63.37 per cent, while also releasing the absolute number of voters for the phase.
The previously estimated turnout, released late on Saturday night after polling in the day, was pegged at 61.20 per cent.
According to the revised estimates, the gender-wise turnout was 61.95 per cent for males, 64.95 per cent for females, and 18.67 per cent for third-gender voters.
The turnout ranged from 82.71 per cent in West Bengal (8 seats) to 54.04 per cent in UP (14 seats), while J&K’s Anantnag-Rajouri seat logged an impressive 55.40 per cent – the highest in several decades.
The turnout in other states/UTs was 74.45 per cent in Odisha (6 LS seats and 42 Assembly seats), 65.39 per cent in Jharkhand (4 seats), 64.80 per cent in Haryana (10 seats), 58.69 per cent in Delhi (7 seats), and 57.18 per cent in Bihar (8 seats).
A total of 889 candidates were in the electoral fray, including Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan from Odisha’s Sambalpur, former Union Maneka Gandhi from UP’s Sultanpur, former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangophadhyay from West Bengal’s Tamluk, industrialist Naveen Jindal from Haryana’s Kurukshetra (all BJP), Kumari Selja from Haryana’s Sirsa, Deepender Singh Hooda from Haryana’s Rohtak, J.P. Agarwal from Delhi’s Chandni Chowk (all Congress), PDP President and former J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti (Anantnag-Rajouri), and actor-politician Deepak Adhikari Dev from West Bengal’s Ghatal (Trinamool Congress).
Other prominent contests included Union Minister Sushma Swaraj’s daughter Bansuri Swaraj making her electoral debut from New Delhi against Aam Aadmi Party’s Somnath Bharti, Congress’ Raj Babbar taking on Union Minister and sitting MP Rao Inderjit Singh in Gurgaon, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s cousin Dharmendra Yadav against sitting BJP MP Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirhua’ in Azamgarh.
–IANS
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