REPORTERS’ DIARY : THERE IS MANY A SLIP

At times, the outcome may be certain; but a slip of the tongue could prove costly; more so, during election campaigns. During public meetings, netas can ill afford to shoot themselves in their foot. Unfortunately, in both Telugu states, prominent netas did precisely this. In Telangana, BRS trouble shooter T Harish Rao, while campaigning in the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency in support of BRS candidate G Vinod Kumar, mistakenly appealed to people to ‘vote for the Congress’ in the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for 13th May. It took shocked BRS candidate Vinod Kumar some time to correct Harish, who then sheepishly reworded his appeal to ‘favour BRS’. Of course, Congress leaders who had fond hopes that Harish will join them winked at the mistake. Likewise, in Andhra Pradesh, Telugu Desam Party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu, while addressing a public meeting in the Rayachoti Assembly constituency, urged people to vote for Srikanth Reddy who is the YSR Congress’ candidate for the seat in the Assembly elections. After ‘Ayyo Rama’ cries from Ramprasad Reddy, the TDP candidate for the seat, Chandrababu corrected himself. The affected candidates know that such mistakes are no laughing matter during high-stakes poll.