More women voted in first two phases of Bengal LS polls
Times of India | 3 May 2024
Kolkata: Bengal may have witnessed a lower voter turnout in comparison with the 2019 LS polls during the first two phases, but EC data has revealed that more women voted in the four constituencies of Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Balurghat and Raiganj.
In Jalpaiguri, the presence of female voters (83.4%) was very close to male voters (83.9%). Only in Darjeeling more men voted compared to women.Bengal has 7.5 crore voters of which 3.8 crore are male and 3.7 crore are female, according to the EC. The data released in Jan 2024 by the EC had shown that for every 1,000 male voters in Bengal, there are 968 female voters.
During the first phase polling on April 19, Cooch Behar, Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri witnessed more women coming to vote. In Cooch Behar, there were 10.1 lakh male voters and 9.5 lakh female voters among the 19.6 lakh voters. There was 82% polling and while women voters were 83.4%, male voters stood at 80.9%. Alipurduar had almost an equal share of 8.8 lakh male and female voters among the 17.7 lakh total voters and recorded 79.7% polling, with 80.8% female voters and 78.7% male voters.
In Balurghat and Raiganj, the presence of female voters was on the higher side. Balurghat had 7.9 lakh male voters and 7.6 lakh female voters among the 15.8 lakh voters and had recorded a 79% turnout, of which 81% were women voters and 77.2% were males. In Raiganj, there were 9.2 lakh male voters and 8.6 lakh female voters, and had a turnout of 76% with 79.4% female voters and 73.1% male voters. Jalpaiguri recorded 83.6% polling with 83.9% male voters and 83.4% female voters. Darjeeling recorded a 74.7% turnout, which was less than the 2019 figure of 78.3%. This election saw a turnout of 75.5% male voters and 73.9% female voters among the 17.7 lakh voters, with both male and female voters comprising 8.8 lakh each.