Don't complain if you don't vote: Manoj Bajpayee casting his mandate

Bajpayee says, "Everyone has the right to cast their mandates because this opportunity comes once in five years. If people don't vote, they will have no right to complain."

Earlier in the day, veteran actor Paresh Rawal also echoed the same thought and he even went to the extent of suggesting some kind of punishment for people who don't vote.

He said, "People, who don't vote, should be held responsible when they accuse the government of lackings. The government can't be held responsible.

"People, who don't vote, should be punished in a way, either by imposing an increased tax on them or something else."

Voting is currently underway in 49 seats across six states and two Union Territories in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha polls on Monday.

The voting process started at 7 am.

Despite the small number of seats going for polls in this phase, the fates of high-profile leaders like  Union Minister Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, and Piyush Goyal, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.

In this phase, over 8.95 crore voters are eligible to express their democratic choice across 94,732 polling stations in the country.

States/UTs going for polls in phase-5 are - Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.