MUMBAI: Exercising his right to vote during the fifth phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2024, veteran lyricist Gulzar on Monday arrived at his designated polling booth in Mumbai with his daughter Meghna Gulzar, who is a renowned director. The father-daughter duo briefly interacted with the media and emphasised the importance of voting.
"Our city is becoming beautiful and we have cast our vote for the development of our city," Gulzar said right after casting his vote.
Urging people to participate in the elections, Meghna said, "Issues of the people keep changing with time and it is the responsibility of the government to solve them. Voting is a responsibility, and it is important that we exercise our right to vote..." The voting for the fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls started at 7 am on Monday and will continue until 6 pm, with those in line by the closing time still allowed to vote.
As per the ECI, over 8.95 crore voters, including 4.69 crore males, 4.26 crore females, and 5409 third-gender electors, will decide the fate of 695 candidates in the fifth phase of voting.
The fifth phase witnesses key contests in various constituencies. Leaders such as Rahul Gandhi, BJP leaders Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Piyush Goyal, Ujjwal Nikam, Karan Bhushan Singh, LJP (Ramvilas) chief Chirag Paswan, JKNC chief Omar Abdullah, and RJD leader Rohini Acharya are looking for electoral success. Eight states/UTs going for polls in phase 5 are Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
Of the 49 Lok Sabha seats, 14 are from Uttar Pradesh, 13 from Maharashtra, 7 from West Bengal, 5 from Bihar, 3 from Jharkhand, 5 from Odisha, and one each from Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.In a bid to create a peaceful atmosphere for the electors, a total of 2,000 flying squads, 2105 static surveillance teams, 881 video surveillance teams, and 502 video viewing teams are keeping surveillance round the clock across the 94,732 polling stations.