Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 15 : Veteran actor Nana Patekar, who arrived early Thursday morning at a polling booth in Mumbai to cast his vote in the ongoing Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, shared that he travelled "three hours" from Pune just to exercise his right.
While speaking to media persons outside the polling station, Patekar expressed his belief in the power of voting and urged others to follow suit. He said that despite the long journey, which required him to travel nearly three to four hours from Pune to Mumbai, he was more than happy to do his part.
"I understand that the sign of my existence is to vote, and for this, I travelled 3-4 hours (from Pune), and I am returning immediately. So please do vote," he added.
Meanwhile, polling is being held on Thursday across 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra. The elections are taking place after an intense campaign and are seen as crucial for major cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Nashik, and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena are contesting the civic elections as allies under the Mahayuti banner, except in Pune, while the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has chosen to fight independently in most corporations.
According to the State Election Commission, a total of 3.48 crore voters are eligible to cast their ballots to decide the fate of 15,908 candidates contesting 2,869 seats across 893 wards in 29 municipal corporations. A total of 39,092 polling centres have been set up across the state.
Polling began at 7:30 am on Thursday, January 15, and will continue until 5:30 pm. The counting of votes is scheduled to take place on Friday, January 16.
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