New Delhi: Voters in 89 seats across seven states and two Union Territories came out in large numbers to surpass the 2009 election figures even though the turnout was low in the lone seat of Jammu and Kashmir. West Bengal, Punjab, Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh, Daman & Diu, Dadar & Nagar Haveli saw very high turnout while it was moderate in Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. With the seventh phase over, voting has taken place in 438 seats.
But the turnout seventh phase of Lok Sabha elections easily crossed the 2009 record by a huge margin as the fate 1,295 candidates were sealed in thousands of EVMs which will be opened for counting on May 16. While there were 13,96,04,510 eligible voters, a majority of them braved the heat wave in many parts of the country particularly Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Telangana to cast their votes.
All 26 seats in Gujarat, 13 in Punjab, 17 in Telangana, 14 in Uttar Pradesh, 7 in Bihar, 9 in West Bengal, and one each in Jammu and Kashmir, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu went to vote. While Gujarat recorded 62 per cent voter tunrout for all 26 seats, it was 73 per cent in Punjab, 70 in Telangana, 57.10 in Uttar Pradesh, 60 in Bihar, 81.35 in West Bengal, 25.62 in Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar, 85 in Dadra & Nagar Haveli and 76 in Daman & Diu. Srinagar saw low turnout as separatists had given a poll boycott call.
Polling was largely peaceful with a few reports of minor scuffles between rival parties in Punjab and West Bengal. The CPI(M) alleged large-scale booth capturing, rigging and violence in the nine seats of West Bengal. The party demanded re-election in around 800 booths spread over eight of the nine Lok Sabha constituencies.
One person was in killed in Srinagar when security personnel opened fire to chase away stone-pelting protesters. The protests erupted in Nawa Kadal area in Srinagar when security forces were being withdrawn after poll duty.
This phase of Lok Sabha voting has sealed the fate of top candidates like Narendra Modi, Sonia Gandhi, LK Advani and Rajnath Singh. Also in the fray are other key figures like Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Arun Jaitley, Captain Amarinder Singh, K Chandrashekhara Rao, S Jaipala Reddy, Ambica Soni, Dr Farooq Abdullah, Jitin Prasada, Shankar Sinh Vaghela and Sharad Yadav.
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