India's voter count reaches nearly 970 million

India’s Election Commission announced on Friday (9) that nearly 970 million Indians are eligible to vote in this year's Lok Sabha elections.

It also said over 20 million young electors in the age group of 18 to 29 years have been added to the voters' list.

There has been a six per cent increase in registered voters from 2019, when the last parliamentary polls were held.

The registered voters then were 912 million. "The largest electorate in the world - 968.8 million are registered to vote for the forthcoming General Elections in India," the EC said.

The gender ratio has increased from 940 in 2023 to 948 in 2024, the poll panel said.

The Commission has put special emphasis on purity and health of the electoral roll along with disclosures and transparency in the revision of electoral rolls, an official pointed out.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar had explained at a press conference in Pune the various tasks involved in revision of electoral rolls along with participation of political parties at every stage.

Over 26.3 million new electors have been included in the electoral roll, out of which around 14.1 million are women who surpassed the newly-enrolled male voters (12.2 million) by over 15 per cent, the poll authority said.

The EC also underlined that effort were made to support persons with disabilities (PwD) by flagging around 8,835,000 such voters in the electoral roll database. This, it said, will ensure accessibility and inclusivity on polling day.

In 2019, voters who had identified them as persons with disability stood at 4,564,000.

After a thorough house-to-house verification, names of over 16.5 million deceased, permanently shifted, and duplicate electors were deleted from the electoral rolls.

"This comprehensive cleanup ensures the integrity and purity of the electoral process. It includes 6.782 million dead voters, 7.511 million permanently shifted or absent voters and 2.205 million duplicate voters," it said.

According to data shared by the EC, the number of third gender voters increased from 39.68 thousand in 2014 to a little over 48,000. At the same time, more than 20 million young electors, spanning the 18-19- and 20-29-year age groups, have been added to the electoral roll.

Over 1.064 million advance applications were received from those above 17 years of age for enrolment in the voters list. People who are not yet 18 will automatically get their voter identity cards once they attain the age of voting if they apply in advance.

While 18.5 million voters have been identified as above 80 years of age, the total number of 'centenarian' (those who are 100 years and above) stood at 238,000.

The EC considers those who are 80 years and above as senior citizens.

As on February 8, Uttar Pradesh has the maximum number of voters at 153 million. Lakshadweep has over 57,000 registered voters.

According to a 2023 letter sent by the EC to political parties, India had 173.2 million registered voters in 1951, which rose to 193.7 million in 1957.

In the first Lok Sabha elections the voter turnout was recorded at 45 per cent. It was 67 per cent in the last parliamentary polls in 2019.

(PTI)