The fifth phase of polling for India general elections 2024 across 49 parliamentary constituencies spread over six states and two Union Territories (UTs) on Monday saw a voter turnout of 60.09 per cent till 11:30 pm, the Election Commission (ECI) said.

According to ECI data, Bihar recorded 54.85 per cent voter turnout, while Jammu and Kashmir recorded 56.73 per cent turnout till 11.30 pm. Similarly, Jharkhand recorded 63.07 per cent voter turnout, Ladakh 69.62 per cent, Maharashtra 54.29 per cent, Odisha 67.59 per cent, Uttar Pradesh at 57.79 and West Bengal 74.65 per cent.

About 2.5 crore more Indian voters have exercised their franchise so far in the first four phases of the India general elections 2024, as compared to 2019, according to a SBI Research report, that cited Election Commission data.

45.1 crore voters, representing 66.95 per cent of turnout, franchised their votes in the first four phases of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Percentage-wise, the voter turnout is less than 68.15 per cent recorded after the first four phases of the 2019 elections.

There was a clash reported between Congress and BJP workers during the ongoing voting in Little Angel School, located in the Sion area of Mumbai.

BJP workers claimed that they were giving voting slips to voters 100 meters away from the polling centre, on which Congress officials accused BJP people were interfering in the voting process by going near the polling centre.

After which Congress and BJP workers came face to face and BJP claimed that they even threatened to kill two people.”Based on the complaint of a BJP worker, Sion police registered a case against two unknown people under section 506(2) of IPC and started further investigation,” Mumbai Police said.

Constituencies in various urban cities like Mumbai, Thane, Nashik and Lucknow continued the trend of urban apathy as noticed in 2019 General Elections.

In Mumbai, celebrities and common citizens alike, waited patiently for their turn to cast their vote and proudly showcased their inked fingers. Celebrities from various walks of life have partnered with the Commission to motivate voters to exercise their franchise in the India General Elections 2024. Various such motivational videos were uploaded on their social media platforms.

With the conclusion of phase 5, polling for India general elections 2024 is now completed in 25 States/UTs and 428 PCs. Polling is also complete in General Elections for State Legislative Assemblies of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh and 63 assembly seats of Odisha State Assembly.

The sixth phase polling is scheduled on May 25 in 58 PCs (including the adjourned poll in Anantnag-Rajouri PC) in 8 States/UTs.

General elections are being held in seven phases from April 19 to June 1 with votes for the 543 Lok Sabha seats to be counted on June 4. 

(With inputs from Agencies)

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