Vote for change and be the change

April 30, the day for Lok Sabha elections is inching closer. Candidates are busy campaigning while citizens are also doing their best to create awareness about the importance of voting. A couple from Tilaknagar, Anita and Omkar Shetty have zealously taken up this cause.

Anita and Omkar Shetty (with pamphlet) encourage residents to go out and cast their vote on April 30

Anita is the principal of Aryan Junior college at Sion (E). She has roped in her husband Omkar as well as the staff and students of her college to take the message of voting to the multitude of people thronging the railway stations.

On April 24, armed with a dummy voting machine and some banners and posters, a team of 100 plus students and teachers gathered at the railway stations of Sion and GTB Nagar to spread the message of voting. Incidentally, both these stations fall under South Central constituency along with Chembur.

Omkar informs, “We would like to hold a similar programme at Chembur railway station also provided we get permission. Our idea is to target the common citizens and the first time voters.

Most of the middle class voters do not turn up to cast their votes, we want them to shed their passivity and play a more pro-active role. Only if the middle class voters wake up will the candidates take us seriously.”

Anita adds, “The students in my college are minors now but within a year they will get the right to vote, so I want them to realise that exercising our franchise is not only our duty but our right as well. On this election day, owing to a long weekend, people are going out on a holiday but I am sending the message across to all go out and vote before proceeding on a vacation.”

In the churches spread across the city the focus is on 100 percent voting. ‘Vote at eight’ is a popular term coined by them for this election which literally means that if you vote at eight in the morning you can still leave for a holiday. Voting early also reduces the chances of bogus votes. CG Plus joins these committed citizens in appealing to all voters to go out and vote.