New Delhi: Voting for 502 seats in the Lok Sabha elections ended with a high voter turnout in 64 seats which went to polls in the eighth phase on Wednesday. According to the Election Commission, 66 per cent polling has been registered till the eighth phase in the polls.
The highest turnout in the 8th phase was 81.28 per cent in the six seats in West Bengal where notable among the 72 nominees were 9 time MP CPI(M)'s Basudeb Acharia, actress Moonmoon Sen of Trinamool Congress from Bankura, singer Babul Suprio of BJP from Asansol and yesteryear actress Sandhya Roy of Trinamool Congress from Midnapore.
An impressive turnout of 56 per cent in seven seats in Bihar was recorded on Thursday. The fate of 118 candidates in Bihar including LJP President Ramvilas Paswan from Hajipur and former Bihar chief minister and RJD candidate Rabri Devi from Saran, besides Rajiv Pratap Rudy of BJP from the same seat were sealed in EVMs.
The most keenly watched contest in the phase 8 was fought in Amethi where two-time Congress MP Rahul Gandhi is up against the BJP's Smriti Irani and Aam Aadmi Party's Kumar Vishwas. Rahul's presence in Amethi on polling day gave an opportunity to the BJP and the AAP to claim the nervousness that the Congress Vice President was facing in the Gandhi bastion.
In Uttar Pradesh, 55.52 per cent turnout was recorded for 15 seats. The polling percentage is an improvement from the 43 per cent reported during Lok Sabha elections of 2009. Basti seat recorded the highest 57.8 per cent of polling.
In Amethi, 55.2 per cent polling was recorded whereas in neighbouring Sultanpur from where BJP leader Varun Gandhi is contesting, 57.2 per cent voters have cast their votes. In Pratapgarh 53.1 per cent, while in Faizabad 57.6 per cent, Gonda 52.8 per cent, Kaushambi 52.6 per cent, Phulpur 54.06 per cent votes were cast.
76 per cent turnout was recorded in Seemandhra where voting took place on 25 seats for the Lok Sabha and 175 members of the proposed assembly simultaneously. Barring sporadic clashes between workers of YSR Congress Party and TDP and alleged attacks on policemen in Rayalaseema districts, polling was peaceful in the region where Congress is battling hard to repeat its 2009 impressive show apparently as a price for bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
Some incidents of poll related violence were recorded in Bihar where one person was killed in police firing outside a booth in Ramnagara village under Bathnaha police station area in Sitamarhi district during voting.
After today's phase, voting has been completed in 502 of the total of 543 constituencies and the remaining 41 seats will go to polls in the last round on May 12.
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