DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Punjab has recorded 62.80 per cent voting in the 13 Lok Sabha seats that took place on Saturday, recording a dip of almost three percentage points compared to the 2019 turnout. The figure for the last parliamentary elections was 65.96 per cent. After compiling data for the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, the poll percentage marginally increased to 62.80 as against 61.32 reported on Saturday, according to the latest data shared by the office of the state chief electoral officer (CEO).

Bathinda witnessed the highest turnout of 69.36 per cent while Amritsar recorded the lowest poll percentage of 56.06, the data released on Sunday showed .

The polling percentage in Gurdaspur was 66.67, Ferozepur 67.02, Patiala 63.63, Faridkot 63.34, Sangrur 64.63, Khadoor Sahib 62.55, Anandpur Sahib 61.98, Hoshiarpur 58.86, Fatehgarh Sahib 62.53, Jalandhar 59.70 and Ludhiana 60.12.

The Punjab CEO's office had set a target of achieving more than 70 per cent turnout in the 2024 polls. Of total 2.14 crore electors in the state, 1.35 crore voted in the elections in which 328 candidates were in the fray in the 13 seats.

Of the voters who exercised their franchise, 71.41 lakh (63.27 per cent) were men and 63.36 lakh (62.28 per cent) women. As many as 280 third gender persons cast their vote, according figures made available by the Punjab CEO office.

A total of 2,14,61,739 voters, including 1,01,74,240 women and 773 third-gender electors, were eligible to vote in Punjab.

Among the prominent faces who were in the fray included BJP nominee Preneet Kaur, SAD's Harsimrat Kaur Badal, former CM and Congress candidate Charanjit Singh Channi, BJP nominee Sushil Rinku, former deputy CM Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and BJP's Ravneet Singh Bittu.
(editor@dailyworld.in)