Being a responsible citizen

For a long time in my life, I never voted. I always felt it was a useless exercise, but then I got to know about how the unused votes are getting manipulated and felt that I was wrong. Voting is every individual's right and must use it judiciously. Yesterday in the state of Maharashtra, there were BMC elections. BMC stands for The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, is a civic public body who is responsible for the development of the city. From roads, to sanitation, infrastructure, healthcare, education, everything is their responsibility.

The last election happened in 2017, and after that the next was due in 2022 but it did not happen due to political issues. Covid had just ended and that time there were some legal issues going on over Other Backward Classes reservations. There was a lot of political instability in that time so the elections kept getting delayed. Then there was Supreme Court intervention, who then gave a mandate to conduct the polls by January 2026, and finally the elections happened. I believe that regular elections are important, which will keep the ruling party always on toes. If one party gets on the ground for very long, then they may start taking it for granted. If they win again in elections then it is their merit, otherwise there is always an opportunity for a new party to take over.

When one does not vote, their votes can easily get misused. False votes can be casted on their behalf and manipulation can happen. The current party has been in power for a long time, though in the last few years they have done some good infrastructure developments in the city but at the same time there have been concerning areas also like the ever-increasing pollution level and the drop in AQI in the city. Currently the city is in bad state with its air quality level, and for that the civic body really needs to take some drastic measure to improve the life quality of the citizens. When I step out, all I see is pollution haze all around. Evening walks in open spaces are not healthy any more.

I went with my friends and we completed the voting process. Over the years there has been lot of improvement in conducting these processes, it's eased out a lot. More centers have been created which reduces the wait time and long queues. Within 5 minutes everything was done and we were out. Now let's see which party comes in power this time and for the next 5 years what change is brought for better functioning of the city. These are civic body elections, so there is not much of noise here, but this is the real party which will impact our day to day life, their impact is felt on every single day, in the way the city functions.

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