For the second time since he began his Vastunna Meekosam padayatra from Hindupur on October 2 last year, Telugu Desam Party president Nara Chandrababu Naidu had an accident of sorts on Thursday.
Naidu sprained his right ankle as he slipped while climbing down a wooden ladder after garlanding the statues of BR Amebdkar, NT Rama Rao and Jagjivan Ram at Kolakaluru in Guntur district. His gunmen and party workers went to his rescue and doctors who rushed there from Guntur examined his ankle and dressed the wound.
Naidu had a similar accident when he was touring Mahbubnagar district. The dais form where he was speaking caved in and Naidu and others fell one over the other.
In Kolakaluru on Thursday morning, Naidu’s security men rushed towards him on seeing him lose balance and fall. But by then, he had sustained an injury to his ankle. Though Naidu wanted to continue his padaytra, the pain in the leg made it difficult for him.
Former minister and Tenali constituency party in-charge Alapati Rajendra Prasad, who was with Naidu, also sustained injuries in the incident.
Naidu’s yatra entered the eighth day in the district on Thursday.
The accident forced him to suspend the padayatra for the day and its resumption on Friday would depend on doctors’ advice, party sources said.