It's almost end of Election season in India, and the Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday came out with the absolute number of votes polled in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha election as well as the final turnout which it pegged at 63.37%.

The absolute number of voters was released just three days after the voting for the sixth phase took place on May 25 while the numbers for the first five phases was released by the poll body 36 days after the first phase.

The highest turnout for the sixth phase was recorded in West Bengal at 82.71%, while the lowest of 55.40% was recorded in Jammu and Kashmir. However, the turnout for J&K was highest in 30 years. The total number of votes polled were 7,05,44,933 in 58 constituencies as against the total registered electors of 11,13,16,606, the EC said in a statement.

The EC had shared the absolute figures for the first time on May 25, a day after the Supreme Court refused to direct the poll body to disclose details of Form 17 C, which contains this data at the booth level and is handed out to all the polling agents of the candidates. A petition seeking this disclosure had been filed by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms.

In an affidavit filed before the top court last week, the commission had expressed concern that there was a “design, a pattern” that was at play in the petitioners’ approach.

In its statement on May 25, the EC had further reiterated this. “The commission notes the pattern of false narratives and mischievous design to vitiate electoral process”, it said adding any alteration in the number of the votes polled is not possible.

The first phase saw 11,00,52,103 out of the total registered 16,63,86,344 votes being polled, the second 10,58,30,572 out of 15,86,45,484, the third 11,32,34,676 out of 17,24,04,907, fourth 12,24,69,319 out of 17,70,75,629 and fifth 5,57,10,618 out of 8,95,67,973 registered votes polled.