Indian-origin stand-up comedian dies while performing in Dubai
Dubai: An Indian-origin stand-up comedian died on stage due to high level of anxiety while performing his act in front of a packed audience here, according to a media report.
Manjunath Naidu, 36, suffered a cardiac arrest while performing his routine on stage on Friday.
He complained of high level of anxiety, sat down on the bench next to him and collapsed onto the floor, with audience thinking that it must be a part of the show, Khaleej Times reported.
Naidu was born in Abu Dhabi but later shifted base to Dubai.
"He was the last act in the line-up. He went on stage and was making people laugh with his stories. He was talking about his father and family. And then he got into a story of how he suffers from anxiety. And a minute into the story he collapsed," Miqdaad Dohadwala, his friend and fellow comedian, was quoted as saying in the report.
People thought it was part of the act. They took it as a joke as he was talking about anxiety and then collapsed, he said.
Dohadwala said that the paramedics could not revive him. "His parents passed away and he has a brother but no relatives here. All in the arts and comedy circle are his family," he added.
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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.
