LIVE | 63% turnout in LS polls phase 4; Bengal tops with 76% amid violence

A voter turnout of over 63 per cent was recorded in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections in 96 constituencies spread over nine states and one Union Territory amid incidents of violence in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal and reports of poll boycott in some villages of Uttar Pradesh.

There were also reports of malfunctioning of EVMs in some booths of West Bengal and Odisha.

The voting, which started at 7 am, continued till 6 pm. Jammu and Kashmir witnessed the lowest voting percentage with 36.58 per cent voters exercising their franchise, while West Bengal recorded the highest with 75.94 per cent.

Among other states, Andhra Pradesh recorded 68.12 per cent, Bihar 56.85 per cent, Jharkhand 63.37 per cent, Madhya Pradesh 71.72 per cent, Maharashtra 52.75 per cent, Odisha, 63.85 per cent, Telangana 61.39 per cent and Uttar Pradesh 57.88 per cent till last reports came in on Monday.

In the first three of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections, polling concluded in 283 seats out of 543.

For Monday, over 19 lakh polling officials were deployed at 1.92 lakh polling stations for over 17.70 crore eligible voters, including 8.73 crore women.

There were 1,717 candidates in the fray for the fourth phase of Lok Sabha polls.

Polling was held in all 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, all 25 seats in Andhra Pradesh, 13 in Uttar Pradesh, five in Bihar, four in Jharkhand, eight in Madhya Pradesh, 11 in Maharashtra, four in Odisha, eight in West Bengal and one in Jammu and Kashmir.

Also, 175 Assembly seats of Andhra Pradesh and 28 Assembly seats of Odisha went to polls in this phase.