LS Polls 2014: India Records Highest-Ever Voter Turnout

BANGALORE: With the end of the world’s largest democracy elections, India has encountered a marathon polling that ended with highest ever turnout with 66.38 percent voters casted their votes to elect 543 members of the 16th Lok Sabha. Surprisingly, the number beats the previous high of 64.01 percent in the 1984-85 elections, as reported by The Times of India.

The general election has cost the government a whooping 3,426 crore, which is 131 percent more than the 1,483 crore spent on the 2009 polls. Apart from inflation, which has soared over the last five years, the Election Commission said that the surge in poll costs was due to its rising spend on new measures including the voter awareness initiative titled Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation.

The highest polling was recorded in West Bengal with 79.03 percent, where stakes are high for Trinamool Congress hoping to retain all the 14 of the 17 seats, followed by Bihar in second place registering the highest turnout in the last round with 58 percent and finally followed by Uttar Pradesh with 55.29 percent. The turnout in Varanasi, one of the Lok Sabha’s most high-profile constituencies where Narendra Modi is pitted against AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and Congress' Ajai Rai, was pegged at 55.34 percent.

Of the total 83.05 crore voters in the country, 55.13 crore voters exercised their vote in the 2014 elections that saw an increase of 13.40 crore voters compared to the 2009 general elections.
“As many as 15 states and union territories (UTs) have witnessed their highest voter turnouts ever. In 32 of the total states and UTs, the turnout was higher than the last Lok Sabha polls,” said EC director general Akshay Rout, reports the Indian Express.

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