Bengaluru, May 11 (IANS): In phase 3 of the general elections to 14 Lok Sabha seats, 72.96 per cent of males and 70.73 per cent of females exercised their franchise on May 7 in Karnataka, according to statistics released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday.

The ECI released the statistics on gender-based voter turnout. In Karnataka, the election was held for 14 Lok Sabha seats in the second phase of voting. The first phase of polling was held on April 26.

The ECI said that 21.03 per cent of persons belonging to the ‘other category’ have cast their vote. The voting percentage of Karnataka stood at 71.84 per cent in the second phase.

In the Bidar Lok Sabha seat, female voters’ turnout (65.78 per cent) exceeded male voters’ turnout (65.19 per cent). High profile Shivamogga parliamentary seat also saw the highest turnout of female voters (77.79 per cent) among 14 seats.

Another high-profile Kalaburagi Lok Sabha seat recorded the lowest turnout of female voters (61.38 per cent).

The percentage of the voters in the 'other category' in Bagalkot was 26.73 per cent. Belagavi (21.05), Ballary (33.46), Bidar (12.62), Bijapur (15.24), Chikkodi (37.50), Davanagere (26.28), Dharwad (26.00), Kalaburagi (10.99), Haveri (28.92), Koppal (29.63), Raichur (7.36), Shivamogga (37.14) and Uttara Kannada (31.25).