Indian borrows Rs 20K from wife to buy Dubai raffle, wins USD 4 million
Dubai: An Indian farmer, who returned home after failing to find a job in Dubai, on Saturday ended up winning over USD 4 million in raffle, the tickets of which he bought with the money borrowed from his wife.
Vilas Rikkala, who is presently in Hyderabad, was the winner of the Dh15 million (USD 4.08 million) Big Ticket raffle, the Gulf News reported.
Rikkala left the UAE 45 days ago at the end of his failed effort to hunt for a job in Dubai. On Saturday, he was informed that he has won the huge prize money.
According to the report, Rikkala and his wife do farm jobs in India and their annual earnings from tilling rice fields amount to about Rs 300,000 (USD 4,306).
Rikkala had previously lived in Dubai and worked as a driver.
An inhabitant of Jakranpalli village in Nizamabad district, Rikkala has two daughters. He has been buying raffle tickets in the UAE for two years, including the Dubai Shopping Festival raffle tickets while he worked in the UAE.
After his job efforts failed, he borrowed Rs 20,000 from his wife and gave the money to his friend Ravi, who works in Abu Dhabi. Ravi bought three tickets under Rikkala's name.
"My wife, Padma, is the reason for the celebration," Rikkala was quoted as saying by the report.
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West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee moves SC against SIR
New Delhi (PTI): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in the state, sources said on Sunday.
The petition names the Election Commission (EC) and the chief electoral officer of West Bengal as respondents. It was filed before the apex court on January 28, the sources said.
Banerjee arrived in Delhi on Sunday. She is scheduled to meet Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar at 4 pm on Monday to discuss the ongoing SIR exercise in West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo would be accompanied by a delegation of party leaders.
She is also likely to meet party MPs in the Parliament House on Monday.
Talking to reporters at the Kolkata airport before leaving for the national capital, Banerjee claimed that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre is resorting to the SIR exercise because it is certain of its imminent defeat in the West Bengal Assembly polls, due in a few months, and said the saffron party should contest the election politically and democratically.
The West Bengal chief minister has written several letters to the CEC, raising concerns over the conduct of the exercise.
In her most recent letter to the CEC on January 31, she alleged that the methodology and approach of the exercise went beyond the provisions of the Representation of the People Act and the relevant rules, causing "immense inconvenience and agony" to citizens.
Earlier, TMC leaders, including Rajya Sabha MPs Derek O'Brien and Dola Sen, had moved the apex court, challenging certain aspects of how the SIR is being carried out in West Bengal.
