New Delhi, May 14 (IANS) Describing voting as the first step for nation building, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Thursday called upon every citizen aged 18 years to become an elector and take part in the celebration of democracy.

Releasing data related to record participation in the recently concluded Assembly elections, Gyanesh Kumar, in a message, said, “In accordance with the Constitution of India, electoral laws, rules and instructions issued there in, the Election Commission of India (ECI) was, is, and will always be with the voters.”

“During the recent Assembly elections, West Bengal electors turned out in record numbers, taking the polling percentage to 93.71 per cent. The total voters in the state was more than 6.38 crore,” the ECI said in a statement.

In Assam, the poll percentage set a new high of 86.33 per cent with more than 2.16 crore electors voting during the recent Assembly elections.

In Kerala, the polling percentage touched 79.53 per cent with 2.16 crore electors casting their ballot.

Tamil Nadu recorded a voter turnout of 86.03 per cent with 4.93 crore electors taking part in polling.

Puducherry recorded a polling percentage of 91.19 per cent with 8,66,932 electors taking part in voting.

Earlier on Thursday, the ECI launched a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in a phased manner across 16 states and three Union Territories, aiming to strengthen accuracy and transparency.

According to the Commission, the Phase-3 schedule of the SIR has been finalised while keeping in view the availability of the common field machinery currently engaged in the ongoing census house-listing operations.

With the commencement of Phase-3, the SIR exercise will effectively cover the entire country, except for Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

The Commission said the schedule for these three regions will be announced at a later stage after considering the completion of Phase-2 of the census exercise, as well as weather-related challenges in upper reaches and snow-bound areas.

–IANS

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