LS Polls: Anil exercises his franchise, says "all citizens of India should vote"

MUMBAI: As the voting began on Monday in Mumbai, various notable personalities exercised their franchise in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections for the fifth phase. Like others, veteran actor Anil Kapor also stepped out and cast his vote at a polling booth in the city.

After exercising his right to vote, Anil Kapoor urged everyone to make use of their voting power.

"I have cast my vote. All citizens of India should vote," Anil told ANI.

Earlier on Monday morning, stars like Akshay Kumar, Farhan Akhtar, Suniel Shetty, Kunal Kemmu, Neha Dhupia, Mahesh Bhatt and Govinda were spotted arriving at their respective polling booths to cast their vote.

The voting on Monday started at 7 am 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.