"Study the candidates before you vote," says Hrithik Roshan after casting his vote

After casting his vote at a polling booth in Mumbai, the 'Fighter' star briefly spoke with the media and sent out an important message, highlighting how important it is for everyone to do proper research about the candidates before exercising their voting rights.

"Study the candidates before you vote, know what you are voting for," he said.

Hrithik arrived at the polling booth with his father and director Rakesh Roshan, mother Pinkie Roshan and his sister Sunaina.

He also took to Instagram and shared a fam-jam picture from the polling booth. In the image, the Roshans could be seen flaunting their inked fingers.

The voting for the fifth phase of Lok Sabha polls on Monday started at 7 am and will continue until 6 pm, with those in line by the closing time still allowed to vote. As per the ECI, over 8.95 crore voters, including 4.69 crore males, 4.26 crore females, and 5409 third-gender electors, will decide the fate of 695 candidates in the fifth phase of voting.

The fifth phase witnesses key contests in various constituencies. Leaders such as Rahul Gandhi, BJP leaders Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Piyush Goyal, Ujjwal Nikam, Karan Bhushan Singh, LJP (Ramvilas) chief Chirag Paswan, JKNC chief Omar Abdullah, and RJD leader Rohini Acharya are looking for electoral success. Eight states/UTs going for polls in phase 5 are Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. Of the 49 Lok Sabha seats, 14 are from Uttar Pradesh, 13 from Maharashtra, 7 from West Bengal, 5 from Bihar, 3 from Jharkhand, 5 from Odisha, and one each from Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

In a bid to create a peaceful atmosphere for the electors, a total of 2,000 flying squads, 2105 static surveillance teams, 881 video surveillance teams, and 502 video viewing teams are keeping surveillance round the clock across the 94,732 polling stations. (ANI)