The third phase of voting in 14 States and Union Territories for the Lok Sabha polls was largely peaceful, recording a turnout higher than in 2009. The final turnout figures are likely to be higher as people were still in queue in some places, the Election Commission said here on Thursday. The first two phases were held on April 7 and 9.
Delhi recorded a 64 per cent turnout, 12 per cent higher than in 2009 for seven Lok Sabha seats, where the BJP is hoping to ride the ‘Modi wave’ along with anti-incumbency against the Congress. But Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP is expected to put up a tough fight.
The highest turnout was recorded in Chandigarh at 74 per cent, which saw a three-corner fight with sitting Congress MP, Pawan K Bansal, pitted against two Bollywood celebrities — Kirron Kher (for BJP) and Gul Panag (AAP).
Kerala, which logged a turnout of 73.4 per cent, saw a straight fight between the Congress-led United Democratic Front and the Left Democratic Front. All the 10 seats in Haryana also recorded 73 per cent turnout, up from 68 per cent in 2009.
Close to 10 crore people cast their votes for over 1,450 candidates in 91 Parliamentary constituencies. With this, the election process is over in Delhi, Haryana, Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh and Lakshwadeep.
The constituencies covered in Thursday’s poll included Maoist-effected regions in Jharkhand (five seats out of 14) and Chhattisgarh (one out of 11), insurgency-hit Jammu & Kashmir (one out six), and the Vidarbha region in Maharashtra (10 out of 48), which has been in the news for farmer suicides.
One incident of violence was reported in Maoist-affected Bastar, where two jawans were killed and seven injured in a fire-fight.
Elections were also held for nine of the 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh, 10 of 21 seats in Orissa, and 10 of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, including riot-hit Muzzaffarnagar. Elections were also held for 70 Assembly constituencies in Orissa.
The fate of several Union Ministers, including Praful Patel (Bhandara in Maharashtra), Shashi Tharoor (Thiruvanthapuram), Ajit Singh (Baghpat. UP) and Kapil Sibal (Chandni Chowk), has been decided.