Indian Olympic medalists Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt actively participated in a marathon through the streets of the national capital on Sunday to spread mass awareness about the need to exercise electoral franchise in the upcoming polls to the state legislature scheduled for December 4.
Sushil Kumar asked the people to cast their votes to keep the spirit of democracy alive in letter and spirit.
"Through your medium, I would like to appeal to all the voters to come and vote and contribute their mite in democracy. Those who don't have voter ID yet, they should get it made and go for voting so as to enable a good government," Kumar said.
Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi Vijay Dev, who flagged off the race with Sushil Kumar, said that the objective was to register all eligible voters in the city before polls.
"The objective of this event is to register all eligible voters in Delhi and along with this all the registered voters must actually participate in democracy through voting," Dev said.
The participants of the marathon carried banners and raised slogans endorsing the need for all eligible citizens to cast their vote in order to strengthen the country's democratic functioning.
"Today's marathon took place from Japanese Park to District Park so that we could raise awareness amongst as many people as possible and encourage them to come for voting on the 4th (of December) which is our polling date," said a resident who took part in the marathon said.
"Generally, the attitude is that people go for holiday on the polling day, so we had to encourage them. Those who are not registered voters, get themselves registered. What is even more important is that people should go and vote on the 4th (December)," said a resident who took part in the marathon," the participant added.
The Electoral Office of Delhi, which functions under the Election Commission of India, took the initiative to organise the run in the north western neighbourhood of the capital.
The marathon started from Chitragupt Park in Prashant Vihar and ended at Swaran Jayanti Park.
People from all age groups from the youth to the old people participated in the marathon.
