UPDATE - Nearly 61% voter turnout recorded in 2nd phase of Indian general election: Officials

UPDATES WITH VOTER TURNOUT; REVISES HEADLINE, DECK; ADDS MORE DETAILS

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) - India on Friday voted in the second phase of the country’s marathon general elections, with a voter turnout recorded at 60.96%, the election commission said.

“Voters from across 13 states/UTs (union territories) participated enthusiastically to cast their vote at their polling station braving the hot weather conditions,” the commission said in a statement on Friday night, adding that polling was held "smoothly and peacefully."

The election authorities put an approximate turnout of 60.96% as of 7 pm IST.

It said with the conclusion of phase 2, voting has been completed in 14 states and union territories for general elections.

Earlier, polling opened at 7:00 a.m. local time (0130GMT) and closed at 6:00 p.m. (1230GMT) in most states, according to election officials.

Over 158 million people were eligible to vote in the second phase of the elections and 1,202 candidates were in the fray.

This election is primarily a battle between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition alliance, called INDIA, headed by the Indian National Congress.

After the polling ended on Friday evening, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on X: “Gratitude to the people across India who have voted today. The unparalleled support for NDA is going to disappoint the Opposition even more.”

In seven phases running from April 19 to June 1, voters will elect 543 lawmakers to the lower house of India’s parliament, known as the Lok Sabha, and the final vote count will take place on June 4.

The third phase of the election will be held on May 7.

Amid the intense campaigning, the Indian Election Commission said Thursday that they sought responses from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the main opposition Indian National Congress party on alleged violations of poll rules in speeches made during ongoing campaigning for the general election.

The election authorities in southern Karnataka state said that a case was registered against a ruling party member of parliament, Tejasvi Surya, for posting a video on X and “soliciting votes on the ground of religion.”

The Karnataka election authorities also said BJP leader in Karnataka C.T Ravi was booked for his post on X for “promoting hatred and enmity between different classes of citizens.”

Meanwhile, the country's top court on Friday declined to order any change to the vote-counting process and rejected petitions seeking a 100% verification of votes cast on electronic voting machines using the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).