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Jyotika faces criticism for statement on voting in Indian General Elections

PUBLISHED DATE : 04/May/2024

Jyotika faces criticism for statement on voting in Indian General Elections

Jyotika was one of the leading actresses of the Tamil cine industry in the late 90s to early 2000s before she married star actor Suriya in 2006. Since then Jyotika has been selective about doing movies, be it in Tamil or other languages. Suriya and Jyotika shifted base to Mumbai a few years ago, yet Suriya was spotted along with brother Karthi and father Sivakumar at a polling booth in Chennai, during Tamil Nadu's phase of the Indian General Elections 2024 voting.  

 

Jyotika was recently promoting her Hindi OTT series Shaitaan in Chennai, and during the same the Tamil press questioned on her absence during voting season. To say that Jyotika fumbled this one, especially for a public figure vocal about social issues, would be an understatement. The actress replied, 

 

"I vote year after year. Somtimes (she is corrected at this point that the general elections take place once in every 5 years) yes 5 years sorry. But I'm saying sometimes you can be outstation, sometimes for a work we can be out, we can be sick, it's like a private thing. Sometimes you're not always there in town also. So, I don't know.

 

Sometimes privately also we vote, it (the voting) is there online too right? So it is not always everything everytime is publicized. There is a private side to life also. So I think we have to also respect that and give that space."

 

Jyotika is a born Muslim, who has previously been critical about the donations given to Hindu temples (in the sense that that money could be put to use for other charitable purposes). Naturally, the far-right wingers of the country have the actress under their scanner. Expectedly, Jyotika's justification on being an absentee voter had them descend in hordes, and level her with their sarcasm and severe criticisms. 

 

A gist of the same has been curated below: 

 

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