Phase III: Stars & industrialists vote,people keep away

Bollywood biggies made a beeline to polling booths in India's entertainment capital to make their vote count,in the third phase of elections.

Bollywood biggies made a beeline to polling booths in India’s entertainment capital to make their vote count,as elections began on Thursday in ten constituencies in Mumbai and Thane regions.

From Bollywood’s first family,Amitabh Bachchan,wife Jaya,son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai were at the Jamnabai Narsee polling booth in suburban Juhu to cast their vote.

Actor Aamir Khan,who reached in Mumbai on Wednesday night to cast his vote,went to a polling booth in Bandra to exercise his franchise.

“Every citizen should come out and vote and that is why I am here,” Aamir,who returned from the US,said.

Filmmakers Yash Chopra,Rakesh Roshan,Karan Johar,Farhan Akhtar,Subhash Ghai also cast their votes. Lyricist Gulzaar,yesteryear’s ‘bad man’ Prem Chopra,columnist Shobhaa De also voted.

Also seen at the polling booth were leading members of India Inc,including R-ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani,RPG Group Chairman,Harsh Goenka and HDFC Chairman,Deepak Parekh,among others,cast their votes today in the Lok Sabha election.

All of them cast their votes in the prestigious south Mumbai constituency where the Congress’ Milind Deora is pitted against Shiv Sena’s Mohan Rawale.

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India Inc has shown a deep interest in the elections,which comes just five months after the 26/11 terror strikes in the city that claimed over 160 lives.

Earlier,voting began this morning in 107 constituencies spread across nine states and two union territories in the third round of the five-phased elections and would end at 1700 hrs.

A total of 1,567 candidates,including 101 women,are fighting for 107 seats in this phase. Polling is also underway for the 32-member Sikkim legislative assembly.

Over 14.4 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise across 1.65 lakh booths,where ballots would be cast electronically.

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While Congress president Sonia Gandhi is seeking re-election from Rae Bareli,one of the traditional constituencies of the Nehru-Gandhi family,Advani,the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate,is bidding to hold on to the Gandhinagar seat as he has done in every election since 1991.

Prominent candidates in the fray in the third phase include former prime minister H D Deve Gowda,JD-U chief Sharad Yadav,Congress’ Milind Deora,Priya Dutt and Jyotiraditya Scindia and former Karnataka chief minister S Bangarappa.

Tight security arrangements have been put in place to thwart any untoward incident.