PURI: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Lok Sabha candidate for Puri, Dr Sambit Patra, knows how to strike an emotional chord with the voters within shortest possible time.
In his latest avatar, Dr Patra appeared in complete Telugu costume and sang a Telugu song at Puri beach.
The song has gone viral on social media. While campaigning at Telugu-dominated Penthakata in Puri on Friday evening, Dr Patra received admiration and appreciation of audiences by singing ‘Telusa Manasa,’ the Telugu version of evergreen Hindi hit number ‘Tu Mile Dil Khile’ from Hindi movie Criminal.
Puri has a sizeable Telugu Population as well.
“While campaigning amidst them sang a famous Telugu number on demand. The frenzy in the crowd was palpable, don’t believe? A must watch! Lots of love to my adorable Telugu friends,” Dr Patra said on Twitter.
He also uploaded the video of his gig on his Twitter handle and said: “The new avatar of Patra, who is usually seen in news studios debating for BJP as the party’s spokesperson, has become viral on social media as well garnering huge praises from the people.”
Dr Patra is also seen in some video clips speaking Kannada and Tamil.
The day Dr Patra arrived in Puri, he stirred a controversy while carrying in his hand an idol of Lord Jagannath during an election procession. This controversy, which was largely created by the ruling BJD and Congress, gave instant publicity to the saffron leader who was until then not much seen in Odisha as he stays in Delhi.
In fact, people of Odisha knew about Dr Patra after he was appointed as party’s spokesperson prior to the 2014 polls.
Dr Patra has stopped wearing his safari suit and shirt and has been appearing in traditional kurta and pajama. In villages, he is often seen cuddling babies, prostrating before elders and taking launch and dinner at poor people’s houses.
Puri will go to polls in the third phase on April 23. Dr Patra is contesting against BJD’s sitting MP Pinaki Mishra and Congress’ state media cell chairperson Satya Prakash Nayak.
He has been mocked for his other campaign tweets. One of them shows him feeding an old woman, but she is cooking on a wooden stove. Netizens pointed out that this ran contrary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim of giving gas cylinders for all poor families.
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