Gujarat Polls: Voter Turnout at 60.13%, Slight Dip from 2019

Valsad was on the top spot in 2019 also with an impressive turnout of 75.22 per cent.Bharuch and Banaskantha seats, which witnessed a close battle between the ruling BJP and the opposition INDIA alliance, recorded 69.16 per cent and 69.62 per cent polling, respectively.Except for Valsad, voter turnout in three other ST-reserved seats -- Chhota Udaipur, Dahod and Bardoli -- saw a significant drop this time compared to the previous election.As against 73.44 per cent voter turnout in 2019, Chhota Udaipur this time recorded 69.15 per cent voting, a drop of 4.29 per cent.

Gujarat has recorded a voter turnout of 60.13 per cent in the elections to 25 Lok Sabha seats, as per the final data shared by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday, registering a nearly 4 per cent drop from the 2019 figure.

This time, the voter turnout was 3.98 per cent less compared to the 2019 general polls in the state. In 2019, Gujarat had registered a voter participation of 64.11 per cent in polls to its 26 Lok Sabha seats.

Voting was held in 25 Lok Sabha constituencies of Gujarat on Tuesday after the BJP late last month bagged the Surat Lok Sabha seat uncontested. The saffron party had made a clean sweep in 2014 and 2019 by winning all the 26 seats in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

''Gujarat has recorded a voter turnout of 60.13 per cent,'' said the 'End of Poll' statement issued by the EC in the evening after updating all data.

The tribal-reserved Valsad constituency in south Gujarat recorded the highest turnout of 72.71 per cent, while the Amreli seat in the Saurashtra region saw the lowest voter participation of 50.29 per cent, as per the poll panel data.

The data suggests that Valsad was the only seat where more than 70 per cent of the registered electors turned up to exercise their franchise. Valsad was on the top spot in 2019 also with an impressive turnout of 75.22 per cent.

Bharuch and Banaskantha seats, which witnessed a close battle between the ruling BJP and the opposition INDIA alliance, recorded 69.16 per cent and 69.62 per cent polling, respectively.

Except for Valsad, voter turnout in three other ST-reserved seats -- Chhota Udaipur, Dahod and Bardoli -- saw a significant drop this time compared to the previous election.

As against 73.44 per cent voter turnout in 2019, Chhota Udaipur this time recorded 69.15 per cent voting, a drop of 4.29 per cent. Dahod witnessed a voter turnout of 59.31 per cent compared to 66.18 per cent in 2019, a dip of 6.87 per cent.

The Bardoli seat recorded a drop of 8.77 per cent, as the voter turnout this time was 64.81 per cent compared to 73.58 per cent five years ago.

Votes will be counted on June 4.

Voting was also held on Tuesday for bypolls to five assembly seats in the state. The five assembly segments -- Vijapur, Porbandar, Manavadar, Khambhat and Vaghodia -- recorded a voter turnout of 62.68 per cent, as per the EC data.

The five seats fell vacant after the resignation of sitting MLAs, four of them from the Congress and one independent.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)