Andhra Pradesh records 80.66 per cent turnout in LS, Assembly polls

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh recorded a voter turnout of 80.66 percent in 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha constituencies on Monday.

Polling began at 7 am in the state and continued till 6 pm, barring a few places where it concluded one or two hours earlier.

This was Andhra's mega elections and it saw people coming from other states mainly from Telangana to cast their vote. On Monday evening, the toll gates witnessed traffic congestion with people heading back after a long weekend.

The highest voting percentage of 83.19% was recorded in Dr BR Ambedkar Konaseema district. It was followed by 83.04% in Eluru, 82.65% in Chittoor, 82.33% in Bapatla, and 82.20% in Krishna. The lowest voter turnout was recorded in Alluri Sitaramaraju district, 63.19%, and Visakhapatnam, 65.50%.

Pithapuram assembly constituency in Kakinada, which saw YSRCP's Vanga Geetha pitching against Janasena chief Pawan Kalyan, recorded 81.45%. This is the highest turnout in Kakinada district.

Prominent constituencies

YSRCP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s Pulivendula assembly constituency recorded a polling percentage of 81.06 percent, according to the latest figures provided by the Election Commission.

TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu’s Kuppam constituency recorded 85.87 percent polling.

Lok Sabha poll figures

The total voting percentage for the Lok Sabha polls was 78.25%. Amalapram parliamentary constituency recorded the highest 83.19% turnout, followed by Eluru (83.04%), Bapatla (82.90%), and Chittoor (82.36%).

Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency, a fight between cousins YS Sharmila from the Congress and YS Avinash Reddy from the YSRCP, recorded 78.72 percent. The highest percentage was recorded in Jammalamadugu (86.30%), and the lowest was recorded in Kadapa (62.83%).

The lowest was at Visakhapatnam, at 68%, and Araku, at 69.26%.

AP Chief Electoral Officer Mukesh Kumar Meena will announce the voting percentage's final figures after the political parties submit their tallying figures.

In 2019, the polling turnout was 79.88%, which was 1.92% higher than in the 2014 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election. Overall, 31,333,631 of a possible 39,345,717 voters participated in the election. The highest turnout of 85.93% was recorded in the Prakasam district, followed by the Guntur district with 82.37%, while the Visakhapatnam district recorded the lowest turnout of 73.67%. Addanki constituency recorded the highest voter turnout, 89.82%, and the Visakhapatnam West constituency registered the lowest turnout, 58.19%.

"The most important part of a machine (EVM) is the chip where data is stored. BEL engineers checked all these chips, and they said that all those were intact and that data could be retrieved," he told reporters. After a few hours' gap polling restarted in those eight stations.

Further, Meena pointed out that the 2024 election voters' list hardly had any errors. Polling began at 7 a.m. and was scheduled to end at 6 p.m. However, it was extended beyond the deadline of 6 p.m. to enable those already waiting in the queues to exercise their franchise.

The YSRCP is contesting all 175 Assembly seats and 25 Lok Sabha segments in the state. As part of a seat-sharing deal among NDA partners, the TDP was allocated 144 Assembly and 17 Lok Sabha constituencies, while the BJP is contesting from six Lok Sabha and 10 Assembly seats. Actor Pawan Kalyan's Janasena is contesting two Lok Sabha and 21 Assembly seats.