A car carrying Himachal Pradesh Governor Bandaru Dattatreya met with a minor accident on Monday morning near Chotuppal town of Telangana’s Yadadri Bhuvangiri district. The Governor’s car developed mechanical problems but the driver managed to steer the vehicle off the road where it crashed into a tree. Both the driver of the car and the Governor are safe, police said.
Bandaru Dattatreya and his convoy were travelling from Hyderabad to Nalgonda when the Mercedes E class vehicle carrying him developed mechanical problems. “The car had a problem with the steering wheel. The driver of the car carrying the Governor managed to navigate to the left side of the road to avoid a major collision and hit a tree. Both the Governor and the driver escaped without any injuries,” said K Narayana Reddy, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Bhongir, of Hyderabad’s Rachakonda Commissionerate.
“The Governor shifted to another vehicle in the convoy and proceeded with his journey,” the officer added.
A former member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Dattatreya was appointed as the 20th Governor of Himachal Pradesh in September 2019. He has been elected to the Lok Sabha four times from the Secunderabad constituency. He earlier served as Union Minister of State for Urban Development in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and as Union Minister for Labour in the Narendra Modi government until 2017.
In 2016, Dattatreya was booked for abetment in the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit scholar from the University of Hyderabad. In 2019, the BJP had fielded G Kishan Reddy from the Secunderabad seat and awarded Dattatreya a Governor post.
In another horrific road accident that was reported early Sunday morning in Hyderabad’s IT corridor, five men lost their lives. They died when they jumped a signal and the car in which they were travelling was hit by a tipper lorry. The accident took place at 2.45 am near the Wipro Circle.