Maharashtra polls: BMC chief urges Mumbaikars to cast their votes

Mumbai: Mumbai civic chief Bhushan Gagrani on Wednesday appealed to voters in the metropolis to cast their ballots, assuring that every polling booth in the city has good facilities.

Polling in all 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra, including Mumbai, began at 7 am and will end at 6 pm.

After casting his vote at KC College near Churchgate station in south Mumbai, the senior IAS official appealed to Mumbaikars to come out in large numbers and participate in the democratic process.

“The administration has provided good facilities at each polling station. Every Mumbaikar must go to the polling stations in their respective constituencies and vote,” said the commissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Over 1 crore citizens are eligible to cast their votes in Mumbai’s 36 assembly constituencies.

A BMC official said that as part of the Election Commission’s “No Voters To Be Left Behind” initiative, the authorities have provided various facilities for people with disabilities and senior citizens at every polling station.

For senior citizens and Divyang (physically challenged) voters, wheelchairs, wheelchair-friendly vans, ramps and special buses have been provided across the city, he said.

Across Mumbai, people have tightened security to ensure smooth polling, officials said.

While shops near polling stations are shut, hawkers have been told to stay away from the areas, they said.

Traffic police staff have been told to ensure that vehicles are not parked in a 100-metre radius of the polling booths, an official said.

Over 30,000 police officials have been deployed across the city and no untoward incident has been reported so far, the official said.

Officials said that in the urban areas of neighbouring Thane and Palghar districts, polling began briskly on Wednesday.

In both districts, 95.21 lakh citizens are eligible to cast their votes. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who represents the Kopri-Pachpakhadi seat in Thane city, is among the key figures contesting the polls.

Social media users claimed that there were minor hiccups due to many women wearing nail polish. There were also claims that some women could not vote due to the paint on their nails.

At a polling booth in Thane’s Dhokali Naka, a woman faced the same issue but moved quickly to scrape the nail paint off her left index finger. She was then allowed to cast her vote.

At the Matoshree Vidyalaya polling booth in Kalyan East, voting was delayed for nearly 30 minutes due to some glitches in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Election officials rectified the problem and the process resumed thereafter.