Chiru’s Sympathy Plan Backfires

Whenever Praja Rajyam Party president Chiranjeevi goes into public, there would always be one incident or the other that would make big news in his tour; whether it is pelting of stone or a hurling of an egg at him.

On Saturday, there was a minor incident at Macherla in Guntur district, where Chiranjeevi toured as part of Praja Chaitanya Yatra. While addressing the gathering, one of his fans threw a stick with PRP flag at him. It narrowly missed hitting his body, as his gunman immediately caught it.

Within minutes, television channels started flashing the news as if Chiranjeevi escaped a major attack. One channel said he was attacked with a stick and that he received injuries in the attack; on the other hand, another channel said Chiranjeevi was deeply injured when an angry party worker hurled stone at him.

After a couple of hours, the same channels gave the scrolling stating that it was a small incident because of an enthusiastic fan who threw the flag-stick at Chiranjeevi asking him to hold it. The local police, too, let off the fan after interrogation. Perhaps, Chiranjeevi might have thought by highlighting such incidents in the media, he would gain public sympathy as was done by Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy. But poor Chiranjeevi, there were hardly any takers for the sympathy drama.