In the rise and fall of voter turnout in 2024, a sharp regional divide
Compared to 2019, turnout has largely fallen in northern states and risen in southern and western states.
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Seventeen of the 25 constituencies that saw the sharpest drop in voter turnouts in the first five phases of the 2024 general elections are in the northern states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, data released by the Election Commission shows.
The Bharatiya Janata Party had won 16 of them in 2019. Thirteen constituencies are in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where the party notched impressive majorities in the last general election, averaging a victory margin of 3.8 lakh votes. The remaining three are in Uttar Pradesh.
On the flip side, 20 of the 25 constituencies with the highest increase in voter turnouts in the first five phases are in southern and western India – eight in Karnataka, seven in Telangana and five in Maharashtra.
Of these 20 seats, the BJP won 12 in 2019. Here too, the saffron party averaged a victory margin of nearly two lakh votes.
A total of 428 seats went to polls in the first five phases of the 2024 general elections.
Compared to 2019, voter turnout fell in 280 of them. The highest fall was seen in the Nagaland constituency, where turnout dropped from 82.91% in 2019 to 57.72% this year, likely because the Eastern Naga People’s Organisation had issued a call to abstain from voting...
