Voters fly in from abroad to exercise their right

Mohit Jain, who will return to Bangkok after a couple of days, said it was not just his right but also his duty to vote for the future of the country

Navi Mumbai: A number of people who are registered as voters in Navi Mumbai but live abroad turned up at polling booths on Monday, travelling all the way from their adopted countries to India to exercise their franchise.

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Among them was Kopar Khairane resident Mohit Jain, 53, who flew in from Bangkok especially for the Lok Sabha election. Speaking after voting at the FG Naik Cpolling station, he said, “We go overseas for employment but that does not mean we forget our responsibilities towards our country. There is no point complaining later about the system not working. We have to take the initiative to vote to make it work.”

Jain, who will return to Bangkok after a couple of days, said it was not just his right but also his duty to vote for the future of the country. “We have to decide who governs us and every single vote counts. So, I made sure I was here to vote,” he said.

Salil and Supriya Dixit, residents of Sanpada, who have been residing in Singapore for the past eight years, also turned up for voting on Monday. “We came to Vashi to vote as our polling booth is located at IES school in sector 1. We are Sanpada residents, but we don’t know why our name figured here,” said Salil, adding, “But it doesn’t matter really. When we could come all the way from Singapore, what is the distance between Sanpada and Vashi? What is more important is that we exercised this right given to us by our Constitution.”

Salil said it is important for everyone to understand the value of this Constitutional right and use it for the country’s development, peace and progress. “We go out of the way for a lot of unimportant things in our life, but this is not just important for us but also the country. Hence, we decided to come over to vote,” he said.