Fifth phase of LS polls sees rise in voting percentage; BJP claims its imminent ... - Economic Times

The fifth and the biggest phase of the election season wound down to a close on Thursday with yet another surge in voter participation, presaging good tidings for the challenger Bharatiya Janata Party led by Narendra Modi even though some cautioned against interpreting the high turnout that way given the notorious unpredictability of India's electorate.

As 121 Lok Sabha constituencies with some 17 crore eligible voters went to polls in 12 states from Karnataka to Jammu & Kashmir and including some 11 constituencies in the key battleground state of Uttar Pradesh, most places saw voting percentages rise sharply compared with the 2009 general elections, which analysts attribute to a combination of factors such as anti-incumbency, newly enfranchised voters to unprecedented levels of public engagement with politics.

BJP was quick to claim the high turnout as a sign of its impending victory. "Large turnout in the phases held till now shows Congress' departure is certain! Focus must now be on electing a stable and strong government," tweeted Narendra Modi. BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said the voting trends were going as per the party's calculation.

"The high polling percentage shows it is not only a wave in favour of BJP but something more than that. It confirms the enthusiasm among voters for good governance," BJP's Prakash Javadekar said. A succession of opinion polls has in recent weeks forecast the BJP-led NDA coalition emerging as the largest formation, with one even saying it would cross the halfway mark. But opinion polls have had a spotty record in the past, failing to call the 2009 and 2004 elections right. Also confusing the "high turnout equals anti-incumbency" argument was the fact that the voter turnout, although higher than the previous Lok Sabha election, was lower than that of the last assembly polls in many places.

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