BMC Election: Bollywood celebs urge citizens to #VoteToSaveAarey

Bollywood celebrities take to Twitter to ask Mumbaikars to vote for a candidate and party who will fight to protect the precious green space

Farhan Akhtar

In this election, even Aarey Milk Colony has found its star campaigners — Bollywood celebrities are the latest to join the bandwagon and appeal to the public to vote for the candidate and party that will protect the forest.

Stars such as Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Deshmukh, Sonali Kulkarni, Dia Mirza, Jaaved Jaaferi tweeted with the tags #saveaarey and #savemumbai. Aarey is threatened by the proposed Metro III project, for which the government has proposed to build a car shed after cutting down hundreds of trees. Calling this a "crime", actor-director Farhan tweeted: "Urban development should include creating more green spaces, not getting rid of existing ones."

Green activists have also appealed to citizens to vote to save the forest, irrespective of the ward they live in, as Aarey is a precious green lung that generates clean air for all of Mumbai and is also an important recreational space where Mumbaikars can experience rich biodiversity. These messages have been circulating on Facebook and WhatsApp, and the topic #VoteToSaveAarey was trending on Twitter yesterday. In the messages, activists are taking potshots at the BJP government.

"All major political parties from Mumbai understand the importance of saving the Aarey forest except for BJP. It is the only party that has not committed to save Aarey," said a member from the #VoteToSaveAarey campaign. MNS chief Raj Thackeray, Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray have supported the cause from the beginning, and now the NCP and Congress too have expressed support.

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