Prashant Dhas, a 22-year-old police constable with the Web Cell of the Mumbai Police, voted for the first time in the Lok Sabha elections this year, in the Kurla (East) constituency.
Mr. Dhas had missed out on voting in the 2016 local elections in Maharashtra as he was at the Police Training Centre near Aurangabad at the time. “I was disappointed that I could not vote then, but this time I was eagerly waiting to exercise my right,” he said.
He faced no inconvenience while casting his vote and it was done within 20 minutes. However, he could not follow the candidates’ rallies and public meetings closely, which confused him about who to vote for until he reached the polling booth. The candidates from the area were Priya Dutt from the Congress and Poonam Mahajan from the BJP.
Along with him, his 19-year-old sister Pranali Dhas also cast her vote for the first time. His friends Soham Pusalkar (31) and Saurabh Singad (22) also exercised their franchise.
“I felt very happy while casting my vote today and I will do this for every election to come,” Mr. Pusalkar said, while lauding the local administration in his constituency, Belapur, for being very helpful during the polling.