Mumbai, January 15: Actor Divya Dutta on Thursday voted in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.

After casting her vote, Divya urged citizens to actively participate in the democratic process, calling it both a right and a responsibility.

"It is our right to vote, and we should come out of our houses and cast our votes," Dutta said. Highlighting key civic concerns, she added, "I think we should think about issues like pollution, employment, and other important matters. The right leaders will listen to the right demands of Mumbaikars."

Polling across 29 municipal corporations in Maharashtra began this morning. The elections are taking place after an intense campaign and are seen as crucial for major cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Nashik, and Pimpri-Chinchwad.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena are contesting the civic elections as allies under the Mahayuti banner, except in Pune, while the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has chosen to fight independently in most corporations.

According to the State Election Commission, a total of 3.48 crore voters are eligible to cast their ballots to decide the fate of 15,908 candidates contesting 2,869 seats across 893 wards in 29 municipal corporations. A total of 39,092 polling centres have been set up across the state.

Polling that began at 7:30 am today will continue until 5:30 pm.

The counting of votes is scheduled to take place on January 16.