New Delhi, April 23 (IANS) Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar on Thursday hailed voters of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu for registering record turnout in the Assembly elections.

“Highest ever percentage of polling in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu since Independence – ECI salutes each voter of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu,” said CEC Gyanesh Kumar in a message, even as the final turnout figures were being collated by officials in both states.

For the first phase of voting in 152 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal, the ECI confirmed 89.93 per cent polling till 5 p.m. – breaching the 2021 elections figure of 82 per cent.

Till 5 p.m. in Tamil Nadu, the voting percentage stood at 82.24 per cent, better than 74 per cent recorded in the 2021 elections.

The 16 districts in West Bengal where polling was held in the first phase on Thursday are Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur, and Malda in North Bengal, and Murshidabad, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Jhargram, Purulia, Bankura, West Burdwan, and Birbhum in South Bengal.​

The second phase of polls in West Bengal for the remaining 142 Assembly constituencies will be held on April 29. ​​The results of the polls will be declared on May 4.

Barring some stray events of tension and clashes, the polling process was the most peaceful and violence-free after the 2011 Assembly polls in West Bengal.

In West Bengal, the polling percentage recorded till 5 p.m. on Thursday was 89.93, the record percentage in the last 15 years since 2011, the year which marked the end of the previous 34-year Left Front government and the beginning of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in the state.

In the six-phase 2011 West Bengal Assembly polls, the average polling percentage was the highest in the last 15 years at 84.33 per cent. In the last seven-phase Lok Sabha election in 2024 in West Bengal, the average polling percentage was 79.8.

However, all those polling records were broken this time.

An insider from the CEO’s office said that once the final polling percentage on Thursday is available, the figure will likely cross 90 per cent.

–IANS

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