The first phase of the Lok Sabha 2019 elections was concluded on 11 April with reported violence and technical snags in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) reported at some of the booths. Tripura saw the highest turnout with 81.8 percent voters casting their vote whereas Bihar had the lowest turnout with 50 percent.

The following table brings the percentage of voter turnout in each of the 20 states and UTs

Percentage of voter turnout in First Phase of Lok Sabha 2019 Elections

Note: The states and union territories are arranged in alphabetical order

West Bengal, which voted in two seats, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar in North Bengal, saw the second highest turnout, which is 81 percent.

In Jammu & Kashmir, two seats went on poll, recorded 54.49 percent and 35.01 percent votes respectively. The two seats were Baramulla and Jammu in which the poll percentages were 35.01 and 72.16 respectively.

Andhra Pradesh completed voting for all the seats in the first phase itself. As per reports, there were technical glitches in the EVMs which delayed the voting process which continued till midnight. In Andhra Pradesh, the total voter turnout was 66 percent, which is around eight percent lesser than that of the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, which was 74.64 percent.

Also Read: How long will the largest democracy wait to go online for Voting? 

Reported events of violence and EVM snags

Incidents of violence have been reported from several booths in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. In Andhra Pradesh, one worker each from Telugu Desam Party and YSR Congress were killed in a clash in a village in Anantapuramu district under Tadipatri Assembly constituency.  Reports of attacks and vandalism also came from Eluru city Jammalamadugu in Kadapa district and Narsaraopet constituency in Guntur district.

In Maharashtra, Naxal infested areas of Waghezari, Gadchiroli district saw an IED blast while the polling process was underway. However, there was no report of casualties. Although later two police commandos were injured in another IED blast at Etapalli.

In the Bastar district of Chhattisgarh, IED blast took place in Narayanpur. In the Bijapur district of the state, four guerrillas were arrested and firearms were seized during the poll process.

In Kairana district of West Uttar Pradesh, a BSF personnel fired in the air as some of the voters tried to forcibly enter the booth sans voter id cards. There were no casualties reported.

In Assam’s Dibrugarh district, an IED was detected in an oil pipeline passing through a tea garden but the security forces took immediate action leading to no casualties.

According to the Election Commission of India, more than 1.70 lakh polling booths were set up for the first phase elections.  The second phase of polling will be conducted on 18 April.

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