Lok Sabha Election 2019: Poor turnouts, violence mar key seats in Phase 5

Polling for the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections ended on Monday, and over 63.01 per cent voters exercised their franchise across 51 constituencies spread over seven states. With this phase done, polling has now concluded for 424 out of 543 seats, while 118 seats will go to polls in two phases.

At just over 63 per cent, the fifth phase saw the lowest voting turnout yet. The four previous phases had seen better turnouts, at 69.50, 65.44, 68.40 and 65.51 per cent respectively.

In all, 674 candidates were in the fray across 51 seats, including senior leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, Jayant Sinha, Arjun Ram Meghwal, etc.

Once again, West Bengal dominated discussions, topping the charts for both violence and voter turnout. Both BJP and Trinamool have traded charges of orchestrating violence against each other, and filed complaints with the Election Commission in this regard. The BJP, in its complaint, alleged that all seven seats from the state that went to polls on Monday saw widespread violence, booth capturing and destruction of EVMs, and demanded repolling.

But Bengal's 74.42 per cent turnout was significantly better than Madhya Pradesh's 66.35 in Madhya Pradesh, 65.12 in Jharkhand, and 63.72 in Rajasthan. Only 57.93 and 57.76 per cent of voters in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar voted.

Jammu and Kashmir saw both extremes in its two seats: While Anantnag saw only 2.38 per cent polling, Ladakh polled an impressive 65.87 per cent. Anantnag saw polling in three phases, and on Monday, a school designated as a polling booth was set on fire in Shopian, while a grenade blast marred polling in Pulwama.

The EC received several complaints of EVM malfunctioning and bogus voting from several places, and had to replace 1.95 per cent of VVPATs and 0.39 per cent of ballot units and control units.