Images showed Telangana candidate distributing slippers to voters in Jagtial district.
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 Vidya Sagar Rao who had won the Korutla seat three times consecutively.
UPA chiarperson 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.