If you want to see some real change, go out and vote!

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Reports stated that authorities are reaching out to civil society members and representatives of housing societies in Mumbai's Colaba to appeal for increasing voter turnout in the Maharashtra assembly elections 2024, reported news agency Press Trust of India (PTI).

This comes after Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar expressed concern last week over urban apathy affecting the voter turnout.

In the 2019 state polls, south Mumbai's upmarket Colaba area saw a low voter turnout of about 40 per cent.

In a bid to address the issue of urban apathy, the EC has decided to hold voting this time on Wednesday (November 20), with an aim to discourage voters from going on vacations if the exercise is clubbed with weekends, reported PTI.

The EC has been flagging the issue of low polling in urban centres, including those like Mumbai and Pune, and has been taking a number of steps to increase voter awareness.

We need a real push beginning now, for increased voter awareness. South Mumbai should make a concerted effort to up these numbers. It should be up to every individual, family and then housing society, to ensure that people go ahead and vote.

We cannot be complaining against our leaders and systems of governance if we do not exercise our right to franchise. Housing society committees, many now at the helm, with huge numbers in buildings, can certainly tell their members to vote.

The committee can also inform staffers, cleaners, security personnel, lift men that they have a duty to go out and vote. There has been an awareness blitz but unfortunately, we see that this remains on paper only. We must see that this truly percolates into minds. We can counsel younger people in the family. Even if one of us can convince just one other person to go to the electoral booth, that too will a big win.