Former Congress leader Sanjay Jha on Saturday shared his analysis of the voting in the first three phases of Lok Sabha elections 2024. While praising the Opposition INDIA bloc’s “honest and people-focused campaign,” Sanjay Jha predicted a sharp fall in the voting percentage for BJP and appealed voters to not resort to NOTA as it will go to waste.
NOTA or None of the Above is an option provided to the Indian voters, which he can select if he doesn’t want to vote for any of the candidates in election fray.
“BJP’s vote-share is coming down substantially from 37.8% of 2019. It might fall to around 30% or lower ( based on first three-phases) which will be an over 25% decline with most votes concentrated in just a few states. Some will still claim that BJP will be close to half-way mark ( it got 31% of votes and 283 seats in 2014). But there is a catch there,” Sanjay Jha said in a post on X.
While elaborating on his point, Sanjay Jha pointed out that this time, the Opposition is not as fragmented as it was in 2014 and barring some exceptions, the BJP is facing one Opposition candidate on most Lok Sabha seats.
“Plus, with over 1/3rd of BJP LS candidates being defectors, the people are fed up with the daylight fraud being committed on them. Thats why the decline in voting turnout,” Sanjay Jha said. My suggestion to you is: Don’t waste your vote on NOTA. We need to improve our political systems; give the opposition INDIA Alliance a chance to prove their worth. It is a reasonable ask. They have fought a honest and people-focused campaign,” he added.
Lok Sabha elections 2024: Drop in voting percentage
In the three phases of the Lok Sabha elections 2024 conducted so far, 284 parliamentary constituencies have voted to choose their representative. According to the numbers released by the Election Commission of India, the voting percentage has declined compared to the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
In the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2024, the voting percentage dropped to 66.1% from 69.9% during the previous election. In the second phase, the voting percentage was recorded at 66.7%, which was again less than the 2019 numbers, which stood at 69.1%.
The voting percentage dropped 2.9% during the third phase of general elections and was recorded at 64.4%.
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Published: 11 May 2024, 06:48 PM IST