New Delhi, June 3 (IANS) The Election Commission of India on Monday said that Jammu and Kashmir witnessed the highest voter turnout in the last four decades with an overall 58.58 per cent polling.

Addressing a press conference here, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said the poll body abolished cumbersome Form M for Kashmiri migrants and introduced self-attestation in place of gazetted officer attestation.

He further said that nowhere in the world 642 million voters cast their vote in any electoral exercise and a record 312 million women voters exercised their franchise in the general polls.

He added that this time only 39 repolls were conducted in the entire country as against 540 repolls in 2019.

Further, the CEC said that 75 international election visitors from 23 countries observed booth polling in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

During his press interaction, CEC Rajiv Kumar said that there were no major incidents of freebies, liquor and money distribution in the elections. He said that cash worth Rs 1,054 crore was seized.

Congress lauds EC for accepting INDIA bloc’s demands on counting day

 Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Monday heaped praise on the Election Commission of India (ECI) for accepting the demands put forth by the INDIA bloc on postal ballots and said that this was a ‘good precedent’ by the poll body in ‘promoting the spirit of democracy’.

Taking to his X handle, the Congress leader said: “What one is happiest about the most is that a very glaring issue of democracy, namely - counting postal ballots first, has been graciously and promptly agreed to by the ECI, one or two days before the counting of votes and shall be implemented tomorrow.”

He further stated, “This is the participatory manner of promoting the spirit of democracy in a non-adversarial fashion, which works best in the long term.”

Singhvi further thanked the EC for taking time out on Sunday and giving a patient hearing to the INDIA bloc demands, apparently after Exit polls predicted a thumping victory for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

“I am happy and proud to have spoken on behalf of the multi-party delegation which went yesterday to the Election Commission of India. We are also grateful to the ECI for giving us time promptly on a Sunday and for hearing us patiently,” he said.

Notably, the Election Commission in its presser today said that it has accepted all the demands flagged by multi-party delegations of the INDIA bloc.

Addressing the press conference, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said, “All issues raised by the multi-party delegations have been addressed.”

Notably, the multi-party delegation under the INDIA bloc went to EC on Sunday and demanded that the postal ballots be counted first and also their results declared before the outcome of EVM counting.

Meanwhile, a majority of exit polls have projected the biggest ever victory for the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, with most of the pollsters claiming that the ruling party is set to bag more than 350 seats while some projected the figure upto 400 mark.