Telangana Candidate Hands Out Slippers, Wants People To Beat Him
HYDERABAD, Nov 23: Days before assembly polls in the state, the election frenzy is sure to kick in. It is during this time that we see parties and candidates up their campaign game to get voters attention. An independent candidate in Telangana displayed a unique such strategy. He handed out slippers to voters.
Ahead of the December 7 elections in Telangana, Akula Hanumanth, an Independent candidate from Korutla constituency of Jagtial district, adapted a rare strategy to move voters. He carried out a door-to-door campaign where he handed out slippers to voters claiming that they are free to hit him with it if he does not deliver on promises if he gets elected.
The candidate also handed out his resignation letter for a future date to indicate that the people have the right to get him off power if he does not take action and work well.
In photos, a woman is seen holding a slipper in her hand, smiling at the candidate as he greets her. A man behind him is seen holding a carton full of slippers.
Campaign videos from Jatial district, over 180 kilometers from Hyderabad, shows the candidate urging people to use the slippers to hit him, in public, if he failed to keep up to his campaign promises if he is elected to power. He also claimed that this was his way of "bringing about change" in the constituency.
Akula Hanumanth is up against ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS candidate K Vidyasagar Rao who had won the Korutla seat three times consecutively.
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi is scheduled to visit Telangana to address her first ever rally ahead of elections in the state. A total of 1,824 candidates are to contest in 119 constituencies for the December 7 polls.
Elections to 119-member Assembly are scheduled to be held in a single phase while counting would take place on December 11.
Assembly elections were due in Telangana next year, but the Chief Minister pushed for early elections in hopes of keeping his voter base together ahead of next year's general elections. Opinion polls say his move could pay off, with his TRS emerging as the big winner, leaving both Congress and the BJP far behind.
Currently the TRS party has 63 seats in the 117-member assembly, the Congress had 22 and the BJP, 9.
Courtesy: www.ndtv.com
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Ahmedabad plane crash: Six months on, college hostel lies in ruins, sans bustle of students
Ahmedabad (PTI): Six months after the AI-171 plane crash, the B J Medical College hostel complex in Ahmedabad stands as a haunting reminder, with its charred walls and burnt trees replacing the once lively chatter of students with an eerie stillness.
Scattered across the crash site are grim remnants of daily life - burnt cars and motorcycles, twisted beds and furniture, charred books, clothes and personal belongings.
The Atulyam-4 hostel building and the adjoining canteen complex stand abandoned, with entry strictly prohibited.
For residents near the site, memories of the incident still linger, casting a lasting shadow on their lives, with some of them saying they are still afraid to look up at the sky when an aircraft passes overhead.
On June 12, Air India flight AI-171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London, crashed moments after take-off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, killing 260 persons.
The aircraft slammed into the BJ Medical College hostel complex in Meghaninagar, turning a lively student neighbourhood into a landscape of ruin and grief.
"The area now lies very silent, only a few birds chirp here," Sanjaybhai, a security guard deployed at the premises by authorities to prevent trespassing, told PTI.
Mahendrasingh Jadeja, a general store owner whose shop is just 50 metres from the point where the aircraft struck, described it as an unimaginable calamity. "In all my years, I have never seen anything like this."
Pointing to a tree behind his shop, the 60-year-old said the aircraft first struck there before crashing into the hostel building.
"It was a scorching summer afternoon. Not many people were outside. When I heard a loud crashing sound, I ran out of my shop. We were all terrified," he recalled.
"Even today, we instinctively look up whenever a plane passes overhead," he added.
Another local, Manubhai Rajput, who lives barely 200 metres from the site, said he witnessed the horror unfold on June 12.
"The plane was flying unusually low. Before I could understand what was happening, there was thick black smoke and a deafening crash," he said.
For over three decades, Rajput and his neighbours lived close to the airport without giving much thought to the aircraft overhead.
"We never looked up at the sky. But that day is etched in my mind. The plane hit a tree first, and then there was a loud sound," he said.
Rajput recalled how hundreds of locals rushed to the site even before police, fire services or the Army arrived.
Tinaben, another resident of Meghaninagar, said she never imagined something like this could happen in Ahmedabad.
"Despite being close to the airport, this area always felt safe," she said.
As an aircraft roared overhead during the conversation, Tinaben paused, looked up nervously and said, "It's still scary."
A senior official of Civil Hospital Ahmedabad, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the state government has yet to decide what to do with the damaged site.
Currently, investigations are going on and the site is strictly prohibited for people, he added.
