Messi Magic: Hyderabad stadium decked up to witness legend's 'Penalty Shootout' on Dec 13
Hyderabad (PTI): The RGI Cricket Stadium here is decked up to witness football legend Lionel Messi's spectacular "Penalty Shootout," when his team will take on Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy-led squad in a friendly tie to be held on Saturday evening.
According to Parvathi Reddy, advisor to the GOAT Tour Hyderabad, there will be a friendly match between the two teams-Singareni RR9 and Aparna-Messi All Stars. These two teams will be playing a 15-20 minute friendly match and five minutes before the match, Revanth Reddy, a football enthusiast and Messi will join and dribble the ball together.
“There will be penalty shoots to decide who is the winning team. Each team gets a 3-3 penalty shootout so that they will decide who is the winning team. Messi will be doing it separately on his own. His magic kick will be done to showcase it to everybody,” Reddy told PTI.
She further said about 60 people paid Rs 10 lakh to get a picture with Messi and the amount thus collected will go to the Football Clinic aiming to provide opportunity to some young players to learn from big names in Football.
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A source closely associated with the event said about 27,000 tickets have been sold so far and the organiser expects full capacity- 39,000 by Saturday evening.
After the match there is a football clinic for about 25-30 minutes in which 20 children will be coached by Messi, Rodrigo (De Paul) and Luis Suarez, she said.
Messi will be landing in the city at 4 PM on Saturday and will leave from Mumbai on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile elaborate security arrangements are being made for the event at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.
Rachakonda Police Commissioner Sudheer Babu said a 3,000 personnel security detail would be provided.
He said only valid ticket holders should reach the stadium, urging the spectators to use public transport or pool cars to avoid congestion at the venue.
Tickets will not be sold at the stadium as they were already sold online.
Messi would have 'Z' category security during his visit and an exclusive entry into the stadium.
Spectators would be allowed three hours before the play starts at 7 PM, the police official said.
Meanwhile, BJP workers, led by MLA A Maheshwar Reddy, held a protest outside the office of state-run mining company Singareni Collieries here alleging that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is misusing public money in the name of playing a football match with Messi.
The CM is wasting public money to the tune of Rs 100 crore out of his "madness for international publicity", he alleged.
The government should state how much money, and for what purpose it was being spent, he said.
He charged that funds of Singareni Collieries are being used to sponsor Revanth Reddy's team in the match with Messi.
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SIR in Bengal: Bhabanipur records nearly 4 times more voter deletions than Nandigram, EC data shows
Kolkata (PTI): Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Bhabanipur constituency has recorded nearly four times more deletions from electoral rolls as against opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari’s Nandigram, according to constituency-wise data released by the Election Commission on Friday that highlighted significant variations across West Bengal.
According to a poll panel official, Bhabanipur (Kolkata), which had 1,61,509 voters in the rolls published in January 2025, saw 44,787 names removed in the latest revision, while Nandigram (Purba Medinipur district), with 2,78,212 voters, reported 10,599 deletions.
The commission has classified the deletions under standard categories such as deaths, relocation, and duplication of entries.
In the 2021 Assembly polls, Banerjee lost Nandigram to her one-time party colleague and protege Adhikari, who moved to the BJP just weeks before the election, by a margin of 1,956 votes.
Bhabanipur is not the constituency with the highest number of deletions, the official said.
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Kolkata Port, represented by senior minister and Mayor Firhad Hakim, has recorded 63,730 deletions, the highest in the state.
Tollygunge, held by minister Aroop Biswas, has seen 35,309 deletions, he added.
In constituencies held by key BJP legislators, the deletion numbers are higher than Nandigram but lower than Kolkata Port, he said.
"Asansol South, represented by Agnimitra Paul, has seen 39,202 deletions, while Shankar Ghosh's Siliguri constituency has reported 31,181 deletions," the official said.
According to district-wise data, South 24 Parganas has recorded the highest volume of deletions at 8,16,047.
Incidentally, the district is considered a stronghold of Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, who secured a victory margin of over seven lakh votes in the last Lok Sabha election.
Among the state's 294 Assembly segments, the highest constituency-level deletions occurred in Chowringhee in North Kolkata, represented by Trinamool MLA Nayana Bandyopadhyay.
The constituency has seen 74,553 names removed. The lowest deletions were reported from Kotulpur in Bankura district, where 5,678 names have been removed.
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Overall, more than 58 lakh names have been deleted in the first phase of the SIR process. The Election Commission is scheduled to publish the draft electoral rolls on Tuesday.
