In what has become trendsetting flight on serving the democratic duty, an IT professional, who is a native of Tamil Nadu, has come all the way from the United States to cast his vote in the urban local body polls, that have been underway in the state. Drawing a comparison from the Tamil movie Sarkar starred by Vijay, the incident has become the talk of the town. 

According to reports, Imtiaz Sharif, a young IT professional from Kanchipuram, has arrived in the state from the US particularly to cast his vote. His commitment to serving the democratic duty and the visuals from the spot have been going viral. Amid making headlines, Sharif had also urged everyone to cast their vote and he also expressed his wishes for candidates who are contesting in the polls. 

He had accompanied his father to the polling station in Kanchipuram and said that he is coming from Los Angeles to cast his vote and he will be leaving back to the United States. Speaking to the reporters after casting his vote, Sharif said, "I am coming from Los Angeles. Casting our vote is our democratic right and to exercise it without fail, I have come from the United States. I have done my democratic duty and everyone should cast their vote." 

"I express my wishes to all the candidates who are contesting in this local body poll. My native is Kanchipuram and my parents are living here in Apparao street. So I have come directly to cast my vote and I am leaving back to the United States. As voting is my democratic right, I have booked tickets as per the date of the polling and I have brought my parents and we all have cast our votes", Sharif said adding that he runs an IT company in Los Angeles which also has its office in Chennai. 

After learning about Sharif's trendsetting flight, netizens are commending him and comparing the event to the Sarkar movie in which actor Vijay, who played the lead role, would come to Chennai from the US to cast his vote. The voting began at 7 am on Saturday - February 19 and it will be held till 6 pm, with the last one hour has been reserved for the voters who have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Urban areas across 38 districts have been polling to elect the representatives and the Tamil Nadu Election Commission had installed surveillance cameras to monitor the polling stations and the state government had deployed over 1 lakh police personnel for security purposes. 

As the pollings happen amid the spread of Covid-19, the Election Commission has rolled out adequate measures and instructions and appealed to the people to adhere to them. Voting is taking place in 31,150 polling stations and following the voting, the voting machines will be escorted to the respective counting centres and the votes will be counted on February 22. It has been reported that Tamil Nadu has recorded a voter turnout of 35.34% as of 3 pm.