2014 Vs 2019: Andhra Pradesh is the only state where the number of Voters has decreased
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 13, 2019
There has been an increase of 6.37 crores in the number of registered voters in India between 2014 & 2019, an increase of 7.6%. Andhra Pradesh happens to be the only state where the total number of registered voters has actually decreased between 2014 & 2019.
During the announcement of the elections to the 17 Lok Sabha, the Election Commission of India (ECI) noted that the total electorate in the country as of 01 January 2019 was around 90 crores. Data released by the ECI (E-Roll data of 2019) suggests that the number of registered voters as of January 2019 is around 89.78 crores compared to 83.4 crores who were eligible to vote in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, an increase of around 7.6%. Of all the States/UTs, Andhra Pradesh happens to be the only state where the total number of registered voters in 2019 has decreased compared to the number in 2014.
19 States/UTs with more than 1 crore voters each
As per the ECI data of 2019, more than 1 crore voters are registered in each of 19 States/UTs. As expected Uttar Pradesh leads with 14.43 crores followed by Maharashtra with 8.74 crores. There are seven (7) states with more than 5 crore registered voters each. Lakshadweep is the smallest constituency in the country with only 54388 registered voters.
Nine (9) States/UTs have registered a growth of more than 10%
The number of registered voters increased by around 7.6% at an All-India level between 2014 & 2019, from 83.4 crores in 2014 to 89.78 crores in 2019. Among States/UTs, the growth in the number of registered voters is more than 10% in 9 States/UTs whereas the growth is between 5% & 10% in 20 other States/UTs. Among all the States/UTs, Andhra Pradesh is the only state that registered a decrease in the number of voters between 2014 & 2019. Compared to 3.67 crore registered voters in in 2014, the number has come down to 3.66 crore in 2019. Among the states, Meghalaya registered the highest growth of 21% followed by Assam where the number of registered voters increased by close to 16%.
What about Service Voters?
The ECI had earlier noted that there is a substantial increase in the number of service voters. As per available data, the number of service voters increased from 13.65 lakh in 2014 to 16.62 lakh in 2019, an increase of more than 20%. The greatest number of service voters are registered in Uttar Pradesh (2.54 lakh) followed by 1.39 lakh in Bihar. Further, more than 1 lakh service voters are registered in each of the states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, West Bengal & Punjab. In terms of increase, the growth in the number of registered service voters is more than 100% in eight (8) different states. At the same time, the number of registered service voters has decreased in 10 States/UTs. In Andhra Pradesh where total number of registered voters has decreased, the number of service voters has registered an increase of 45%.