Election Commission today said that it has undertaken the largest-ever awareness and outreach drive for enhanced participation in Lok Sabha Elections. It said that various public and private sector organisations have collaborated with the Commission on a pro-bono basis as part of this targeted outreach initiative.

 
The poll body said, it has also doubled up its voter participation interventions to overcome the small drop in turnout in the first two phases. It said, that turnout so far has been 66.14 percent in Phase 1 and 66.71 percent in Phase 2. This is among the best electoral participation in Indian history but less than the high benchmarks of the 2019 General Elections.

The ECI also held a meeting with top weather experts, and health and disaster management agencies to consider the impact of heatwave on the election process as well as the voters’ turnout during the third phase. The weather is predicted to be normal in the 11 States and UTs that are going for polls in Phase 3.