Lot of complaints from voters about facilities outside polling booths

Mumbai: Amid voting underway in 13 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Monday claimed there were lot of complaints from electors about facilities outside the polling booths.

Voters were trying to beat the heat and exercise their franchise in large numbers, the former state minister said, adding that electors should at least be made to queue up in shade and provided fans.

Polling was underway since 7 am in 13 Lok Sabha constituencies of Maharashtra, including six in Mumbai, and will continue till 6 pm.

“A lot of complaints from voters about the facilities outside the booths @ECISVEEP Atleast having the voter lines in shade/ fans could help. They don’t want much, just basics to stay cool. Please look into it,” Thackeray said in a post on X.

Some of the electors in Mumbai said they went to the polling booths early in the morning to beat the heat.

Altogether 2.46 crore persons are eligible to cast vote to decide the fate of 264 candidates in the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Bharati Pawar and Kapil Patil are among the key nominees of the BJP, which has also fielded lawyer Ujjwal Nikam.

Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde and Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad are also in the fray.

Goyal, Patil and Gaikwad cast their votes early in the morning.

Various other prominent persons, including RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, industrialist Anil Ambani, Bollywood celebrities Akshay Kumar and Farhan Akhtar, were also among the early voters in Mumbai.