Voting in the critical fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections, spread across 49 seats in 8 states and Union Territories, ended on Friday with an estimated turnout of 60.09 percent. Participation ranged from a high of 74.65 percent in West Bengal (7 seats) to a low of 54.29 percent in Maharashtra (13 seats), where leading film personalities and top business leaders made it a point to vote to inspire the electorate.
As of 11:30 p.m., other states and UTs reported the following turnout percentages: Ladakh (1 seat) at 69.62 percent, Odisha (5 seats and 35 Assembly seats) at 67.59 percent, Jharkhand (3 seats) at 63.07 percent, Uttar Pradesh (14 seats) at 57.79 percent, Jammu & Kashmir (1 seat) at 56.73 percent, and Bihar at 54.85 percent.
The Election Commission noted that these percentages would continue to be updated by field officers as polling parties return. These updates are available via the VTR App, reflecting data input by field officers. The current figures are approximate trends and do not yet include postal ballots. The final vote count per polling station is recorded in Form 17 C and shared with polling agents at the close of polls.
Baramulla saw a high turnout of voters, preliminarily recorded at 56.73 percent, the highest since the pre-insurgency era of 1984 and much higher than the 46.65 percent in 1996. Officials in the UT speculated that the final turnout might touch 59 percent.
Braving the heat, around 90 million voters queued up to cast their votes from 7 a.m. onwards, sealing the fate of 695 candidates. However, the Election Commission expressed disappointment over continued urban voter apathy in cities like Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, and Lucknow, a trend seen in the 2019 elections as well. Another complaint from voters and leaders was the slow pace of polling.
In Mumbai, several Bollywood and TV stars cast their votes. Amitabh Bachchan with his wife Jaya, Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Sanjay Dutt, Kajol, Tabu, and Shah Rukh Khan, who posed with his wife Gauri and son Aryan, were seen at the polling booth. Some stars, including Dharmendra, Akshay Kumar, Manoj Bajpayee, and Rajkummar Rao, also appealed to citizens to vote through media statements.
Leading industrialists such as Ratan Tata, Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra, and Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, along with his daughter Ananya Birla, were also among the voters.
This phase, though small in number, featured several high-profile seats. Top Union Ministers like Rajnath Singh (Lucknow), Piyush Goyal (Mumbai North), and Smriti Irani (Amethi) were in the fray, besides national and regional party leaders, including Rahul Gandhi (Raebareli), Omar Abdullah (Baramulla), and Chirag Paswan (Hajipur).
Other high-profile contests included Shiv Sena's Shrikant Shinde in Kalyan, son of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, and Karan Bhushan Singh in UP's Kaiserganj, where the sitting BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh made way for his son. In Bihar's Saran, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's daughter Rohini Acharya is contesting against BJP candidate and former Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy, while in West Bengal's Hooghly, Trinamool Congress candidate and actress Rachna Banerjee is pitted against actress-turned-politician Locket Chatterjee of the BJP.
With the end of the fifth phase, voting has been completed in 428 Lok Sabha constituencies across 25 states and UTs, including Maharashtra and Ladakh. The next and penultimate phase, covering 58 constituencies, is on 25 May, when Haryana and Delhi will join in for single-phase polling.
