Putting her professional oath ahead of a potentially political one, a candidate for the assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh, who is also a doctor, delayed her campaign to help a woman deliver a baby via a caesarean section.
Gottipati Lakshmi, the TDP candidate for the Darsi Assembly constituency in Prakasam district, was about to leave to campaign on Thursday when she was informed about a woman who was losing amniotic fluid – which can lead to a miscarriage and also endanger the mother – and had been referred to a hospital in Guntur.
Ms Lakshmi, who is from a political family but is making her electoral debut, went to the private hospital where Venkata Ramana from Abbayai Palem in the Kurichedu Mandal of the district was admitted.
“The doctors at the private hospital had referred her to Guntur. I went there and conducted the surgery to save the mother and child,” Ms Lakshmi told NDTV. The mother and child are healthy.
“I will build a hospital here once the TDP wins,” she said.
Voting will be held for all 175 Assembly constituencies and 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh on May 13. The YSR Congress Party, led by Jagan Mohan Reddy, had swept 151 Assembly seats and 22 Lok Sabha constituencies in 2019. Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP had won 23 and three respectively.