Junior NTR comes on stretcher to vote

Hyderabad, April 16 (IANS) Severe injuries sustained in a road accident could not stop him from campaigning in Andhra Pradesh. And on Thursday popular Telugu actor Junior NTR made sure that he cast his vote too - even if it meant coming out on a stretcher.

Accompanied by his mother, the young Junion NTR, who was the star campaigner of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), reached the polling centre at St. Ann's School in Mehdipatnam neighbourhood in an ambulance and was straightaway taken inside the booth.

He showed the indelible ink mark on his finger to television cameras but returned home without talking to mediapersons. Andhra Pradesh is holding simultaneous polls to the assembly and the Lok Sabha.

Junior NTR, who has uncanny resemblance to his legendary grandfather and TDP founder N. T. Rama Rao, proved a big hit with the masses when he launched his campaign for the party in mid-March.

With his speeches full of theatrical punches like the ones delivered by NTR, he drew huge crowds in four districts before he met with a road accident March 26. He remained in hospital for 15 days.

Even after being discharged from hospital, he campaigned from his bed. In a televised address April 13, the star appealed to the electorate to defeat the ruling Congress party and bring the TDP back to power.