Many eminent film personalities turned up to cast their votes in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls that are being held on Thursday. The list of celebrities included Akshay Kumar, Aamir Khan, Tamannaah Bhatia and Hema Malini among many others.
Akshay, who turned up with his wife Twinkle Khanna, was one of the earliest ones to arrive at the polling booth. “If you want to be the real hero of Mumbai, then instead of dialogues, you should come and vote,” Akshay said. He also emphasised the importance of voting for the right candidate instead of merely voicing grievances.
Additionally, Aamir Khan and Salim Khan too appealed to all voters to exercise their franchise. Nana Patekar, who especially travelled from Pune to Mumbai to cast his vote, said, “I understand that the significance of my existence is to vote and for this I travelled (from Pune), and I'm returning immediately. Don't stay at home, step out and please do vote.”
Suniel Shetty, who too cast his vote today, described BMC elections as the ‘most important grassroot election,’ adding, “We often blame the BMC that it doesn't do this or that, but they work tirelessly even late at night”
Veteran lyricist-filmmaker Gulzar, who will turn 92 this year, said, “We are rooted in our homeland, and your vote is to nurture those roots and democracy, hence we should fulfil this duty (of voting) towards our country. If you don't vote, you lose the right to complain." Hema Malini also said voting for the right candidates is essential to achieve a cleaner, safer and better Mumbai.
On the other hand, Vishal Dadlani expressed his angst at the low turnout at booths, calling it ‘shameful’. He added, “There are more officials inside and fewer citizens and it's so shameful. If we don't take care of our country, if we don't take responsibility for it, then what's happening will continue to happen.”
Other film personalities who turned up to cast their vote included Divya Dutta, John Abraham, Isha Koppikar, Kailash Kher, Rakesh Roshan, Tamannaah Bhatia, Sanya Malhotra, Sonali Bendre, and Zoya Akhtar. The voting began at 7.30 am for the BMC and 28 other municipal corporations in Maharashtra and will conclude at 5.30 pm.
In Mumbai, the electoral battle is between the BJP-led Mahayuti and the alliance of cousins Raj and Uddhav Thackeray for control of BMC, which has an annual budget of more than Rs 70,000 crore.