Lakshadweep records marginal fall in voter turnout compared to 2019 Lok Sabha election

Lakshadweep islands see high voter turnout with marginal decrease, highest among States and Union Territories.

Lakshadweep islands recorded a marginal decrease in polling percentage from 85.21% in the 2019 Parliament election to 83.88% in the voting held across 10 islands to the lone Lok Sabha seat held on Friday.

However, it was still the highest turnout among the States and the Union Territories that went into polls on Friday. As per the Election Commission’s data, 48,468 out of the total electorate of 57,784 turned up to vote in 55 polling booths across the islands. Female voters surpassed the male voters by 24,278 against 24,190.

Polling was held across Bitra, Chetlat, Kiltan, Amini, Androth, Kalpeni, Minicoy, Kavaratti, and Agatti islands. The lowest voting percentage of 63.70% was recorded in Minicoy Island compared to the rest of the islands all of which recording a polling percentage in excess of 80%. Only 5,479 out of the 8,602 voters turned up at the eight polling booths in the island.

Chetlat recorded the highest turnout of 90.81% where 1,867 out of the 2,054 cast their votes in two polling booths. In Kiltan Island 89.89% of the 3,789 voters turned up in four booths. In Kadmat, 88.97% out of the 4,768 voters cast their votes in five booths. Amini Island recorded 88.65% of polling as 6,341 out of the 7,153 voters cast their votes in six booths.

Agatti recorded 87.51% polling as 5,984 of the 6,838 voted. In Androth Island with the highest number of 10,668 registered voters, 9,251 voted pegging the polling percentage at 86.72%. Kavaratti Island polled 86.27% of the 9,648 voters in nine polling booths. In Kalpeni Island, 3,330 of the 4,045 voters cast their votes pegging the voting percentage at 82.32%.

However, as per the data, the sole polling booth in Bitra Island registered a polling percentage of 103.38% as 245 were shown as voted as against the total electorate of 237. Election authorities were not available to explain this seeming anomaly.

In 2014 and 2019, the electoral battle was between the Congress’ Muhammed Hamdullah Sayeed and the Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Mohammed Faizal P.P. The NCP candidate won, the last time by a margin of just 823 votes. These old rivals locked horns yet again. But this time, while Mr. Faizal was fielded by the Sharad Pawar faction of the NCP, the Ajit Pawar-led faction of the party, which has aligned with the BJP in Maharashtra, fielded T.P. Yousuf from Kadmat island.