7th phase: 3 S Kol seats see dip in voter turnout than 2019 LS polls

KOLKATA: The overall data of voter turnout as released by the Election Commission on Tuesday showed a reasonable dip in polling percentage in three out of four constituencies in South Kolkata in comparison to the Lok Sabha elections held in 2019. The four constituencies in South Kolkata — Kolkata Port, Rashbehari, Bhowanipore and Ballygunge — that went to polls on Monday recorded an overall voting of 61.70 per cent. In the Lok Sabha polls, the poll percentage was 66.

Constituency wise data revealed that Rashbehari had the lowest polling of 59.8 per cent, Ballygunge had 61 per cent voting, Bhowanipore witnessed 61.36 per cent while Kolkata Port recorded the highest polling of 64.41 per cent. The analysis of polling during the Parliamentary elections in 2019 showed that Rashbehari had witnessed 66.9 per cent voting, Bhowanipore had 66.8 voting while Ballygunge registered 66.2 per cent polling. Kolkata Port had slightly lesser turnout with 64.2 per cent in the Lok Sabha polls.

"The surge in Covid cases seems to be a major factor behind the dip in polling in South Kolkata. Kolkata has been recording the highest number of positive cases and fatalities too," a senior EC official said. The overall voting percentage of 76.90 was recorded during the penultimate phase of polls on Monday. The figure was the lowest among the seven phases. West Burdwan, in which 9 constituencies witnessed polls, also recorded a polling percentage of 72.44 per cent. Kulti and Asansol Uttar had 69.14 and 69.21 per cent voting respectively among the lowest of the constituencies.

South Dinajpur (6 constituencies) and Murshidabad (9 constituencies) had reasonably good voting with 82.94 and 82.12 per cent respectively while six constituencies in Malda recorded 79.58 per cent voting.