At least 60% of seats that went for polls in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections saw higher female turnouts than males, for the first time in the ongoing polls. It was also the second election phase in which the overall women’s turnout surpassed the men’s.
On May 25, a total of 58 seats across eight states and union territories had voting with an average turnout of 63.37%. As per the data from the Election Commission of India (ECI), the average female turnout was 64.95%, against 61.95% for males.
The analysis of data from the ECI by News18 shows that at least 34 seats saw higher female turnout than males. In addition, 24 of the Lok Sabha seats that voted last week saw higher female turnout this time when compared to 2019. Further, just 15 seats saw a higher average voter turnout than in 2019.
Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag–Rajouri saw a massive jump, of more than 45 percentage points, in overall turnout as well as female voter turnout. The seat, called Anantnag till 2019, reported an average turnout of 8.98% in 2019 while the female turnout was 7.62%. This time, the female turnout improved to 52.86% and overall turnout was 55.40%.
In the list of seats where female turnout was better than male, the top six positions were taken by constituencies from Bihar – Gopalganj, Sheohar, Maharajganj, Vaishali, Siwan, and Valmiki Nagar. The other seats in the list of top 10 were Bihar’s Purvi and Paschim Champaran.
Smaller districts in Uttar Pradesh also saw higher female participation – Domariyaganj, Lalganj, Sant Kabir Nagar, Azamgarh, Basti, Pratapgarh, and Machhlishahr.
On the other hand, at the bottom 10 positions in the list were nine seats from Haryana. Sonipat, Faridabad, Hisar, Karnal, and Sirsa are the bottom five. These seats had a higher male turnout.
Voter turnout is the percentage of voters that have actually taken part in an election out of the total eligible voters in a seat. A turnout of 63% means out of every 100 voters in a seat, 63 came out for polling. Female turnout is the percentage of women who step out to vote out of all the registered female voters.
Just seven seats saw female turnout above 80%, all from West Bengal. Tamluk, Kanthi, Bishnupur, Ghatal, Jhargram, Medinipur, and Bankura also reported female turnout above 80% in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. These seven seats also reported the highest female turnout among the 58 seats, similar to 2019.
The average voter turnout of the 58 seats was 63.37%, down from 64.50% in 2019.
Haryana’s Hisar, Kurukshetra, and Sonipat reported the highest drop in average voter turnout when compared to 2019. The three seats reported more than 70% voter turnout in 2019. It came down by more than seven percentage points.
The voter turnout in all the eight West Bengal Lok Sabha seats that polled under the sixth phase saw a drop. The average turnout on these seats in 2019 was 84.61%, which came down to 82.71% now.
Just three Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh – Shrawasti, Ambedkar Nagar, and Phulpur – reported higher voter turnout than in 2019. Out of the 14 seats from the state that saw polling under the sixth phase, 11 saw a fall in voter participation.
The average turnout of these 14 seats was 54.04% this time, slightly lower from 2019 (54.64%).
The seventh and final phase of the Lok Sabha polls will be conducted on June 1 while the counting of votes will be done on June 4.
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