Mumbai: With only 10 days remaining for the voting for Maharashtra assembly polls, the Election Commission (EC) has intensified its voter awareness drive. On Friday, the EC launched a special campaign to promote voter education and participation in which Bollywood celebrities, sportspersons and several other public figures participated as goodwill ambassadors. EC also released a campaign song 'Yeh Pudhe, Matdaan Kar' (Come Forward and Vote).
The goodwill ambassadors included Director Rohit Shetty, actors like Ananya Pandey, Varsha Usgaonkar, Manoj Joshi, Sonali Khare, Ali Asgar, comedian Bharti Singh, cricketer Ajinkya Rahane, singers like Rahul Saxena, Milind Ingle, social activist Gauri Sawant and others.
The event was also attended by Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar, BMC Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani, Chief Electoral officer S. Chockalingam and other senior officials.
The statement released by EC said," In preparation for the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly Elections, a special campaign titled ‘Celebration of Elections, Pride of Maharashtra’ was launched under the SVEEP (Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation) program to promote voter education and participation. The campaign was inaugurated at the Gateway of India, where a new voting anthem, “Yeh Pudhe, Matdaan Kar” (Come Forward and Vote), was released.
The initiative aimed to promote voter awareness across all assembly constituencies in Maharashtra, covering every district, including Mumbai. Following the event, a voter awareness rally was held from the Gateway of India to residential areas in Colaba to further engage the citizens.
Total Voters In Maharashtra
As per the electoral list released on October 30, 2024, Maharashtra has more than 9.70 crore registered voters, of which 22.22 lakh are from the age of 18 to 19 years- which can be counted as first-time voters. The election commission had granted time till October 19 for new voters to register themselves.
The total number of registered voters in Maharashtra are 9,70,25,119, of which 5,00,22,739 are male, 4,69,96,279 are female and 6101 are third-gender voters.
The voting for 288 assemblies in Maharashtra will be conducted in single phase on November 20. The results will be declared on November 23. A public holiday has been declared in Mumbai, for all government, private sectors and trades and commercial establishments on November 20 to allow citizens to cast their vote.