Maharashtra elections 2024: Text ‘Vote Morning Mumbai’ instead of ‘Good Morning’

(Right) Rajendra Kshirsagar, suburban district collector with Narendra Singh Bali, election general observer

‘Vote Morning Mumbai' - the slogan given by election general observer Narendra Singh Bali during a press conference on Friday held by the Collector and District Magistrate Rajendra Kshirsagar suggests that Mumbai is ready to vote on November 20 for the upcoming state elections.

Bali has been appointed as the election general observer for various constituencies of Mumbai suburban districts. Kshirsagar, while addressing media from his office, said, "Mumbai suburban district has a total of 315 candidates contesting elections from 26 Assembly constituencies. The district has a total of 7,579 polling stations, of which 6,277 are now in a permanent building and the rest are temporary polling stations."

He informed that the commissioning work of the EVMs has been completed, and this time, 100 per cent of the polling stations will be streamed online, unlike the Lok Sabha elections, when only 50 per cent of the polling stations were online.

Kshirsagar further said that out of 4,349 valid applications for home voting, 3,533 voters have already cast their votes through postal ballots, and the remaining voters will also cast their votes soon. Apart from home voters, election duty officials have also cast their votes via postal ballot. As of Friday, 26,213 votes were cast through postal ballots, and the process will continue till November 19.

"We have taken help from BEST to run buses on various routes to make sure that it becomes easy for voters to reach their polling station. Apart from this, we have asked the booth-level officers to give priority treatment to elderly voters, divyang voters, and pregnant women at any polling station," said the district collector.
Speaking about the facilities, he said chairs for voters waiting in line and dedicated waiting areas with token systems have been commissioned. The voting will commence at 7 am and end at 6 pm on November 20.

"63 polling stations in the district have been identified as critical, and mobile phones will also not be allowed inside. We aim to overtake the polling percentage of the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly by at least 1 per cent. The J&K assembly recorded 70 per cent voting," Kshirsagar said.

He said they had received a total of 540 complaints regarding the violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), of which all were resolved within the directed timeframe by the election commission. Speaking to the media, Bali said, "We are confident that Maharashtra will break voting percentage records, with Mumbai spearheading the numbers at the top. I urge the people to text ‘Vote Morning Mumbai' to their friends and relatives instead of texting ‘Good Morning' messages for the next few days till voting commences."

Big haul

Cash and other items worth Rs 150.9224 crore and 37,011.14 litres of liquor was seized by police and excise officials in the suburbs since the MCC came into force. Narcotic substances worth Rs 44.79 crore were seized by state police, NCB, and Customs. Precious metals worth R88.93 crore were seized by police and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Customs. Freebies and other items worth Rs 5.83 crore and Rs 151 crore in cash was also seized.