Wednesday, Apr 30, 2014
Hyderabad: The day of polling in Telangana turned out to be a day of embarrassment and disappointment for two film stars.
A film-star-turned-politician faced acute embarrassment on Wednesday when he came to cast his vote.
Actor and union minister Chiranjeevi had to join the long queue of voters at the Jubilee Hills Club polling station when an ordinary citizen awaiting his turn objected to the official’s family barging into the booth out of turn.
When the film star — accompanied by his wife, daughter, and actor son Ramcharan Teja — arrived at the polling station with TV cameras in tow and headed straight inside, a voter identified as Kartik objected.
He requested Chiranjeevi to ask his family to join the queue.
Though taken aback initially, Chiranjeevi responded positively with folded hands. The actor and his family joined the queue and cast their votes when their turn came.
Kartik, a Cambridge-based software professional, who became an instant hero among the voters present, said: “We were waiting for nearly one-and-a-half hours in the queue when the family came. I requested them to join the queue.”
Kartik had come from Britain specifically to cast his vote.
However Chiranjeevi denied that he tried to jump the line. “I was going inside to find out whether my name was there on the list or not,” he said, accusing the media of blowing the incident out of proportion.
Elsewhere popular Telugu actor and comedian Brahamanandam, who was the Election Commission’s ambassador for an awareness campaign urging citizens to register and vote, was shocked to find his name missing from the voter’s list today.
When Brahamanandam and his wife came to a polling station in the posh Jubilee Hills area to cast their votes, staff told them that their names were not on the list.
“I am very disappointed. It is incomprehensible how my name can be deleted when I am staying at the same old place and I have voted here in the past”, the actor said.
By Mohammad Siddique, Correspondent
Gulf News 2014. All rights reserved.
