CHANDIGARH: A voter turnout of 55.93 percent was recorded in Haryana on Saturday till 5 pm in its 10 Lok Sabha seats and polling remained peaceful, poll officials said, adding that the figure could increase as data is being compiled.
In 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the overall poll percentage was 70.
Meanwhile, residents of Tapu Majri village in Yamunanagar district, which has a total of 436 votes, boycotted the polling over their pending demand for the construction of a bridge over the Yamuna.
“If a bridge is constructed on the Yamuna river in the area of our village, we will have to travel only 10 km to reach Yamunanagar,” said Ashok Kumar, a villager.
According to the EC data, Sirsa recorded the highest turnout at 59.57 percent, followed by Ambala at 58.44 percent, Kurukshetra (58.38%), Rohtak (58.28%), Bhiwani-Mahendragarh (56.11%), Karnal (55.71%), Sonipat (55.49%), Hisar (53.85%) and Faridabad (53.64%). Gurugram registered the lowest turnout at 51.75%.
There are 2,00,76,768 registered voters, including 94,23,956 women and 467 transgender people, chief electoral officer Anurag Agarwal earlier said. Voting was also held for the bypoll to the Karnal assembly seat, where Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini is in the fray.
First-time voters expressed their enthusiasm at being part of the exercise. “The youth are a country’s backbone and everyone should exercise their right to vote,” said a first-time voter in Panipat.
Meanwhile, an independent MLA from Badshahpur, Rakesh Daulatabad, died of a heart attack on Saturday.