India General Elections 2024: Voter turnout improves marginally in Thane, Kalyan LS seats

Voters at the Raja Shivaji Vidyamandir polling booth at Lokmanya Nagar in Thane West on May 20. Pic/Satej Shinde

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's bastion, Thane, on Monday witnessed a low turnout but an upward trend was witnessed as Kalyan, which is being contested by the CM's son Shrikant Shinde, registered a 50 per cent turnout on Monday. The figures for 2009 and 2019 were a mere 34 per cent and 45 per cent respectively. Thane recorded a 52.09 per cent turnout, reflecting a similar trend. The average turnout in Thane, Kalyan and Bhiwandi was 53.92 per cent where 55.30 per cent of male voters, 52.32 per cent of female voters and 20 per cent of transgender individuals eligible to vote exercised their franchise on May 20.

Despite being the battleground where the son of the CM is in the fray, half of the residents didn't turn up to vote at polling stations in Kalyan. As per information made available by the Election Commission of India, the constituency witnessed a little above 50 per cent voting with the Ambernath and Mumbra constituencies experiencing the lowest turnout - 47 per cent and 49 per cent respectively. But this is not the first time Kalyankars have shown little interest in the democratic process. In 2019, the voting turnout was hardly 45 per cent.

Thane also witnessed a similar trend. The seat is seeing a close fight between Shiv Sena's Naresh Mhaske and the Sena (UBT)'s Rajan Vichare. In Bhiwandi, the polling percentage was low like earlier elections. The only exception was Palghar, which is mostly a rural area. As was the case in 2019, more than 60 per cent of voters turned up at polling stations to select their candidate.

Past voter turnouts of constituencies

Thane
2009 41.50%
2014 50.85%
2019 49.37%
2024 52.09%

Kalyan
2009 34.30%
2014 42.88%
2019 45.29%
2024 50.12%

Bhiwandi
2009 39.39%
2014 51.61%
2019 53.18%
2024 59.89%

Palghar
2009 48.10%
2014 62.90%
2019 60.74%
2024 61.65%