Second Indian national dies after suffering severe injuries in US house fire
New York (PTI): A second Indian national has died after suffering severe injuries in a house fire in Albany, the US authorities and the Indian mission here have said.
Anvesh Sarapelli succumbed to his injuries on Saturday, a day after the death of Sahaja Reddy Udumala, who had also suffered severe burns in the same incident.
"We are deeply saddened by the untimely demise of Mr Anvesh Sarepalli, an Indian national, who lost his life in a house fire incident in Albany. Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences are with his family in this difficult time," the Consulate General of India in New York said in a social media post on Saturday.
The mission is in touch with his family and is providing all possible assistance, it added.
Umudala and Sarapelli were among four people found inside the home near Quail Street when police and firefighters responded to the fire on December 4.
The victims were treated at the scene by the Albany Fire Department and emergency medical personnel before being transported to Albany Medical Centre Hospital.
Umudala and Sarapelli were later transferred to the Westchester Medical Burn Centre for further treatment.
Albany Police said “tragically”, Umudala and Sarapelli both succumbed to their injuries they sustained in the fire.
The Albany Police Department had said in a statement that when they arrived at the scene, officers and firefighters found the residence fully engulfed in flames and learned that several individuals were still inside the home.
A ‘GoFundMe’ campaign has been launched by Udumala’s cousin, Rathna Gopu, to help meet funeral and memorial expenses, repatriation arrangements and other costs arising from the tragedy.
On the fundraising page, Gopu said the family had suffered an “unimaginable tragedy” with the loss of Udumala, a 24-year-old master’s student in Albany.
Udumala had sustained burns covering nearly 90 per cent of her body and “struggled immensely, fighting with all the strength she had,” Gopu wrote, adding that she died after suffering complete organ failure.
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AAP hit by exit of 7 MPs, faces test ahead of 2027 poll battles
New Delhi (PTI): With Seven MPs, including prominent faces such as Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh and Swati Maliwal, quitting the AAP on Friday, the party has not only lost numerical strength in Parliament but its preparedness for upcoming elections has also been hampered.
The development comes against the backdrop of a turbulent phase for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the last two years, when several of its top leaders, including former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, were arrested in connection with the alleged excise-policy scam, leaving the party grappling with a leadership vacuum and testing its ability to function under pressure.
During that period, the party had sought to project resilience, with second-rung leaders, including Chadha, stepping in to keep both the government and organisation running.
Many among the seven MPs were seen as key pillars in shaping the AAP's outreach -- whether in policy articulation, organisational strategy, finances or public messaging -- making their collective departure more than a routine political shift and more of an organisational rupture.
Their move, meeting the two-thirds threshold under the anti-defection law, showcases both the scale and the severity of the split.
Chadha said on Friday that all seven MPs have merged with the BJP, asserting that the AAP has strayed from its principles, values and core morals. Besides Chadha, Pathak, Mittal, Singh and Maliwal, Rajinder Gupta and Vikram Sawhney have also quit the Kejriwal-led party.
For the AAP, the timing of the seven MPs' exit is particularly crucial. The party is gearing up for next year's electoral battles in Gujarat, Goa and Punjab, where it hopes to consolidate and expand its presence beyond Delhi, where it has formed the government thrice and enjoys a strong base.
AAP leaders have sought to project confidence, maintaining that the party’s grassroots connect and governance plank remain intact despite the departures.
On the ground, the party continues to hold power in Punjab and retains a presence in Delhi, along with a limited reach in Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir.
In Parliament, however, its reduced strength in the Rajya Sabha -- down from 13 to six now -- could limit its ability to assert itself in legislative debates.
For a party that built its identity on the anti-corruption plank, a collective leadership and a steady stream of new faces rising through the ranks, the current departure revives an old pattern of prominent colleagues parting ways, including former IPS officer Kiran Bedi and poet Kumar Vishwas.
In 2015, former AAP spokesperson Shazia Ilmi quit the party and later, joined the BJP, followed by senior leader Kapil Mishra in 2017 after a bitter public fallout over allegations of corruption within the party. In 2018, founding member Ashish Khetan stepped away from active politics altogether, citing personal reasons. Each of these departures came at a time when the AAP was attempting to stabilise or expand.
With the Gujarat, Goa and Punjab polls on the horizon, the immediate challenge before the Kejriwal-led party is to steady its organisation, rebuild its leadership bench and reassure workers that the political project it launched more than 10 years ago remains intact.
For the AAP, after weathering the arrests of its top leaders and with the exit of influential parliamentarians now, the current situation may well determine whether it can sustain its expansion ambitions or will be forced to consolidate around its existing strongholds.
