Andhra Pradesh records 81.86 per cent voter turnout in simultaneous LS/Assembly elections

Amaravati, May 15 (IANS) Andhra Pradesh recorded 81.86 per cent polling in simultaneous elections to the state Assembly and Lok Sabha conducted on Monday, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) M. K. Meena announced on Wednesday.

Announcing the final polling figures at a news conference, he said 80.66 per cent of voters cast their votes in polling stations while 1.2 per cent polled their votes through postal ballot.

The CEO said that compared to previous elections, the polling figure has gone up by 2.09 per cent.

In 2019, the state had recorded a voter turnout of 79.77 per cent while in 2014, it was 78.41 per cent.

He revealed that polling in 3,500 polling stations continued even after 6 p.m. as those standing in queues were allowed to cast votes. The last polling station completed the process at 2 a.m.

Meena said polling in some places was delayed due to rains. He said observers analysed the polling process and all the reports and they have not taken any decision to conduct re-polling anywhere.

More than 4.14 crore voters were eligible to cast their votes in the elections for 175-member Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats in the single-phase polling.

The Darsi Assembly segment received the highest polling at 90.91 per cent while the lowest, at 63.32 per cent, was recorded in Tirupati.

Among Lok Sabha constituencies, Ongole saw the highest turnout of 87.06 per cent while Visakhapatnam recorded the lowest, at 71.11 per cent.

The Election Commission had Tuesday put the overall polling figure at 78.36%. Enthusiasm among voters marked the polling in the southern state as an estimated six lakh people living in neighbouring states of Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and other parts of the country came to their native places to cast their votes.

Some even came from abroad to participate in the polling process. Election authorities had set up 46,389 polling centres across the state. The voters decided the political fortunes of 2,841 candidates.

Chief Minister and YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Jana Sena leader and actor Pawan Kalyan were among 2,387 candidates for 175 Assembly seats.

For 25 Lok Sabha seats, 454 contestants are in the fray and the prominent among them were state BJP chief and former Union Minister D. Purandeswari (Rajahmundry), state Congress President Y. S. Sharmila Reddy (Kadapa), and former Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy (BJP, Rajampet).

The CEO said that the EVMs have been kept under tight security at 350 strong rooms across the state. Counting of votes will be taken up on June 4.

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