The helicopter carrying veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani during his whirlwind campaigning in Karnataka elections strayed from its scheduled path and had to make an emergency landing at the Begumpet airport here for refuelling on Monday.
Mr. Advani was to have been flown from Sedam to Gadag in Karnataka. But, there was reportedly a communication gap between the BJP’s election managers and the pilot of the private chopper and the BJP leader was being flown to a wrong destination.
The pilot realised his mistake and also noticed that there was fuel shortage. He immediately diverted the chopper to Begumpet where it landed around 4 p.m.
Meeting gets delayed
As a result, his election rally at Hubli, the next destination after Gadag, where he was scheduled to address a meeting at 6 p.m. along with Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar got delayed. After more than a one-and-half hour wait at the VIP lounge of the airport, Mr. Shettar flew in here by a special aircraft to take Mr. Advani to Hubli.
Leaders rush to airport
As soon as the BJP office here was informed about the chopper’s landing here, State BJP leaders N. Ramchander Rao, NVSS Prabhakar and Malla Reddy rushed to the airport and interacted with Mr. Advani.
He discussed the issue of Telangana and the national political scenario.
He was believed to have told them that the situation for the BJP had improved in the last one week in Karnataka.
