Mumbai has once again disappointed with its poor voter turn out in the Lok Sabha elections. The city has recorded just 55.11 per cent voter turn out which is lower than the state average of 55.86 per cent. However, the numbers are better than what was witnessed in the last election when the voting percentage was just 51.6 per cent.

The voter out in the six constituencies that went to polls today was: Mumbai South-50.34 per cent, Mumbai North-57.27 per cent, Mumbai North West-53.12 per cent, Mumbai North East-53.35 per cent, Mumbai North Central-54.05 per cent and Mumbai South Central-53.61 per cent.

The voting numbers in the neighboring constituencies were also disappointing. Thane recorded 50.22 per cent, Bhiwandi 52.43 per cent, Kalyan 42.99 per cent and Palghar 62.05 per cent.

Today, polling was held in 17 seats in Maharashtra. The total percentage for these seats was 55.97 per cent. With today’s polling, the election in the state has ended with 60.68 per cent overall voter turn out. This number is almost similar to that in the last Lok Sabha elections when the number was 60.32 per cent.

The poor voter turnout was recorded despite repeated appeals made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a number of Bollywood celebrities for higher voting. The Prime Minister had personally tagged the actors to campaign for higher turnout. He had appealed to Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Karan Johar, Akshay Kumar, Aamir Khan, and many others to encourage the people to cast their ballot. Some of the actors had even responded positively.

Polling was held in 72 parliamentary constituencies across nine states in the fourth phase. The total turnout in this phase has been recorded at 63.3 per cent. In the first three phases, the voter turn out was 69.45 per cent in phase-I, 69.43 per cent in phase-II, 64.66 per cent in phase-III.