People express and pray for the victory of their leaders ahead of an election in different ways - perform yagnas and homams, offer lakhs of money at a temple, do things certain ways per superstitious beliefs, etc. Ahead of the Telangana polls, a man from Andhra Pradesh's West Godavari district took an extreme measure to ensure certain political leaders win. The man, identified as Mahesh, slit a piece of his tongue and dropped it in a temple's hundi in Hyderabad's Sri Nagar colony, on Wednesday.
According to the police, he also wrote a letter where he said that he wanted to see certain politicians as Chief Ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. However, it is not clear which party he supported in the upcoming polls. Speaking to the Times of India, Banjara Hills inspector Govinda Reddy said, "He slit his tongue at the temple. A letter was found in his possession, in which it was mentioned that he wants to see two prominent politicians as the Chief Ministers of the two Telugu states. It also mentions his wish of becoming a minister in the AP cabinet."
The incident took place at the Sri Venkateswara temple at Srinagar Colony and Mahesh was rushed to the state-run Osmania General Hospital (OGH), where his condition was reported to be stable.
The temple hundi where the man put his slit tongue
However, what is even more perplexing is that the police suspect that the man, in this case, might be a 'repeat offender'. In 2009, too, a man identified as Mahesh had resorted to the same act at the same temple in the city’s Sri Nagar colony.
At the time, Mahesh said that he was an ardent follower of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and sliced off a part of his tongue as a ‘sacrifice’ to god for the Congress leader's victory. He had reportedly repeated the act during the 2004 elections, held prior to 2009.
Telangana will go to the polls on December 7 and the counting of votes will take place on December 11.
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