The voter turnout in Uttarakhand went down by five per cent on Friday in all five Lok Sabha seats of the Himalayan state. However, both the ruling BJP and the main Opposition Congress claimed their victories in 2024 parliamentary polls as the first phase of polling concluded.

Uttarakhand chief electoral officer’s effort to take 2024 vote share to 75 per cent failed to achieve its target as the state recorded 53.56 percent polling at the end of the voting on Friday evening. This was nearly 4.5 per cent less than the 2019 Lok Sabha elections which witnessed 58 per cent voting, as informed by the office of the chief electoral officer of BVRC Purushottam.

Interestingly, polling in the state was slightly higher than the last elections till the afternoon, with 37.3 per cent against 36.8 per cent in 2019 by 1 pm, but it came down substantially and the graph never went up after that.

According to the official figures, all five Lok Sabha constituencies recorded low polling as compared to 2019 voting. Almora recorded the lowest voting with 44.4 per cent against nearly 50 per cent voter turnout in 2019.

The Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar Lok Sabha seat witnessed the highest turnout of 59.36 per cent, nearly seven per cent less than that of around 66 per cent in 2019. The maximum dip of more than eight per cent voter turnout was recorded in the Haridwar parliamentary constituency. Haridwar vote share came down from 67.66 per cent in the 2019 elections to 59 per cent in 2024.

Although final figures for the turnout in the state was likely to come by late Friday night or Saturday morning, both political parties have claimed that low turnout would go in their favour. While the ruling BJP claimed its clean sweep in all the five constituencies, Congress leaders said low polling would help them win a minimum of two seats this time.

“Although we will not have preferred this turnout, it’s a time-tested formula that low polling goes in favour of the ruling party in the state. It might have been due to bad weather conditions and high temperature but voters were in favour of the BJP candidate. People have voted for the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre,” claimed BJP’s senior state spokesperson Manveer Chauhan.

The Congress party, on the other hand, said low voter turnout is bound to help it win a minimum of two seats this time in Uttarakhand. Senior Congress leader and party’s chief state media coordinator Rajiv Mahrshi said, “We are upbeat with this turnout. It’s a clear indication that the people of Uttarakhand have lost interest in the ruling dispensation. BJP leaders had been making tall claims of increasing their victory margins with high voter turnout this election but their hopes were dashed. This time, their cadre was unwilling to come out to vote. Their clean sweep claims have also fallen flat. Uttarakhand may see a repeat of 2009 results when Congress won all five constituencies.”