{"id":5451,"date":"2024-04-23T12:27:36","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T12:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/?p=5451"},"modified":"2024-04-23T12:27:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T12:27:36","slug":"2024-lok-sabha-elections-60-03-voting-till-7-p-m-says-election-commission-businessline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/?p=5451","title":{"rendered":"2024 Lok Sabha elections: 60.03% voting till 7 p.m., says Election Commission – BusinessLine"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Voting was underway on Friday in 102 Lok Sabha seats spread across 21 states and Union territories in the first of the seven phases of the\u00a0world\u2019s\u00a0largest electoral exercise, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging voters to exercise their franchise in record numbers. \u201cSubstantial\u201d voter turnout was reported in many States and Union Territories, the Election Commission said. Estimated voter turnout at 5 p.m. stands at 60 per cent, per the ECI.
He especially called upon the young and first-time voters to vote in large numbers.
Polling began at 7 a.m. and will end at 6 p.m. Over 16.63 crore people are eligible to vote in this phase. In the first phase, there are 35.67 lakh first-time voters, besides 3.51 crore young voters in the 20-29 age group.
As the voting commenced, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge urged voters to cast their ballots carefully and asserted that a new era of economic empowerment and equal opportunities beckons them.
Appealing to people to vote in large numbers, he said on X that\u00a0\u201cthe fight to protect our Constitution and Democracy begins today.\u201d
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi urged voters to strengthen democracy and open\u00a0\u2018Mohabbat ki Dukaan\u2019\u00a0in every corner of the country by defeating hatred.
\u201cToday is the first phase of voting! Remember, each and every vote of yours is going to decide the future of\u00a0India\u2019s\u00a0democracy and its generations,\u201d\u00a0Gandhi said in a post in Hindi on X.
\u201cGo out and strengthen democracy by applying the balm of your vote on the wounds inflicted on the soul of the country in the last 10 years,\u201d\u00a0he said.
The Congress leader added that defeating hatred would open\u00a0\u2018Mohabbat Ki Dukaan\u2019\u00a0in every corner of the country.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah appealed to people to choose a strong and decisive leader who has shown determination to free the country from corruption, nepotism, and appeasement while fulfilling its promises.
Tamil Nadu recorded 72.09 per cent voter turnout in LS polls: CEO Satyabrata Sahoo
Election officials said a voter turnout of 11.15\u00a0per cent\u00a0was recorded in the first two hours of polling in the five Lok Sabha seats of Assam, while over 15\u00a0per cent\u00a0voters exercised their franchise in three Lok Sabha constituencies of West Bengal.
Among the prominent early voters were Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, who cast his vote at Walbakgre polling station in Tura Lok Sabha constituency,\u00a0Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat, who cast his ballot in Nagpur,\u00a0Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal, who exercised his franchise in Bikaner and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami at Nagra Terai polling station in Khatima.
Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu and Union Minister Kiren Rijiju also cast their votes in their native villages as the polling for two Lok Sabha seats and 50 assembly constituencies in the state began.
Sangma, who drove to the polling station, said,\u00a0\u201cI reached the booth at 6.30, hoping to vote first. But I was pleasantly surprised that there were many people before me. It is a healthy trend. Voting is a right of every citizen.\u201d
Rijiju cast his vote in his village, Nafra, in the newly created Bichom district, while Khandu exercised his franchise in the Mukto constituency in the Tawang district.
The counting of votes in the elections that will conclude on June 1 will be taken up on June 4.
Polling is\u00a0being held\u00a0for all seats of Tamil Nadu (39), Uttarakhand (5), Arunachal Pradesh (2), Meghalaya (2), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (1), Mizoram (1), Nagaland (1), Puducherry (1), Sikkim (1) and Lakshadweep (1).
Besides, voting is underway in 12 seats of Rajasthan: eight in Uttar Pradesh, six in Madhya Pradesh, five seats each in Assam and Maharashtra, four in Bihar, three in West Bengal, two in Manipur, and one seat each in Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir and Chhattisgarh.
Simultaneously, assembly elections are\u00a0being\u00a0held\u00a0in Arunachal Pradesh (60 seats) and Sikkim (32 seats).
Among the prominent candidates in the fray in the first phase are Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Sarbananda Sonowal, Gaurav Gogoi of Congress and\u00a0DMK\u2019s\u00a0Kanimozhi. An aggressive K Annamalai, who is steering the BJP campaign in Tamil Nadu, is also among the contestants.
The Election Commission has deployed over 18 lakh polling personnel across 1.87\u00a0lakh\u00a0stations.
While the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) under Prime Minister Modi is seeking a stronger majority, the constituents of the opposition INDIA bloc are hoping for a rebound after facing reverses in the 2014 and 2019 elections.
Besides Gadkari and Sonowal, seven other Union ministers\u2014Bhupendra Yadav, Kiren Rijiju, Sanjeev Baliyan, Jitendra Singh, Arjun Ram Meghwal, L Murugan, and Nisith Pramanik\u2014are in the first\u00a0phase\u2019s\u00a0poll fray.
Two former chief ministers–Biplab Kumar Deb (Tripura) and Nabam Tuki (Arunachal Pradesh)–and Tamilisai Soundararajan, who recently resigned as governor of Telangana to return to active politics,\u00a0also figure in the poll battle.\u00a0Soundararajan is contesting from Chennai South on a BJP ticket.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar urged people to cast their\u00a0ballot\u00a0on Thursday. He reminded people of the significance of each vote, saying there have been instances when one vote has mattered in a critical contest.
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Get businessline apps onConnect with usTO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITSConnect With UsGet BusinessLine apps onBy PTI Comments READ LATER Voting was underway on Friday in 102 Lok Sabha seats spread across 21 states and Union territories in the first of the seven phases of the\u00a0world\u2019s\u00a0largest electoral exercise, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging voters to exercise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samvadbharatnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}