Women voters outnumber men in 2024 LS polls

About 64.64 million voters exercised their franchise in the Lok Sabha polls held earlier this year, with women voters outnumbering men, according to statistics released by the Election Commission on Thursday.

IMAGE: Women voters show their ballot papers as they wait in queues to vote for the Lok Sabha elections in Ramgarh, Jharkhand, May 20, 2024. Photo: Photo ANI

Female voter turnout was 65.78 percent compared to 65.55 percent for male voters, the EC said.

EC officials said such granular data is not shared by any of the electoral management bodies in democracies around the world.

The data on the Lok Sabha polls, 2024 and the four assembly elections — Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh — held alongside the parliamentary polls comes against the backdrop of allegations of non-disclosure by the EC.

“This suo motu initiative is to enhance public confidence which forms the basis of India’s electoral system,” the EC said.

Referring to the participation of women in the polls, the EC said the number of female candidates contesting was 800 compared to 726 in 2019.

Maharashtra had the highest number of women contesting candidates with 111 in the fray, followed by 80 in Uttar Pradesh and 77 in Tamil Nadu.

But at the same time, out of the total 543 Lok Sabha constituencies, there were 152 where there were no women candidates.

A total of more than 97.97 million citizens registered as voters, compared to more than 91.19 million in 2019 — an increase of 7.43 percent.

Of those registered voters, 64.64 million voted in 2024, compared to 61.4 million in 2019, the EC said.

According to the poll panel, any Indian citizen who enrolls in the electoral roll is defined as a voter. The voter who finally votes is called the voter.

The total number of votes polled — using EVMs and the postal voting option — was 64,64,20,869. Votes polled on EVMs alone were 64,21,39,275 with 32,93,61,948 male voters and 31,27,64,269 female voters.

Just over 13,000 registered third-sex voters exercised their franchise (27.09 percent), according to the data.

Almost 43 thousand voters used the postal voting option to vote.

Dhubri parliamentary constituency in Assam recorded the highest voter turnout at 92.3%, while Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir recorded the lowest voter turnout at 38.7% compared to 14.4% in 2019.

According to the data set issued by the EC, as many as 11 parliamentary constituencies recorded a voting percentage of less than 50 percent.

Revocations, the EC pointed out, took place in 40 polling stations or 0.0038% of the total 10.52 lakh polling stations, compared to 540 in 2019.

Referring to overseas Indian voters, the EC said over 1.19 lakh such persons were registered under this category, including 1.06 lakh males, 12,950 females and 13 third genders, compared to 99,844 registered voters overseas in 2019.

Overseas Indian voters are those who are Indian citizens living abroad for various reasons and are eligible to vote here.

They came to India to vote, showing their original passport as proof of identity.