Sonia's flight develops snag, to reach Erode by road

Erode, Tamil Nadu, Sep 4 (UNI) The arrival of Congress President Sonia Gandhi to address a public meeting here has been delayed by a couple of hours as the special aircraft carrying her developed a technical snag and was diverted to Bangalore instead of Coimbatore.

Senior Congress Leaders and Union Ministers E V K S Elangovan and G K Vasan said due to snag the flight could not land at Coimbatore, from where she was to take a helicopter to the venue of the public meeting. The aircraft was diverted to Bangalore.

The snag was rectified in Bangalore and she would land in Coimbatore from where she would reach Erode by road.

As the security officials advised her against taking helicopter due to inclement weather, she insisted she had to be in Erode for the meeting and said she would not mind travelling by road.

The Ministers said Ms Gandhi was keen to know whether people would wait for her arrival to which she was assured that the people of Tamil Nadu were eager to see her.

Since it would take about two hours by road to reach Erode from Coimbatore, Ms Gandhi, who was scheduled to address the public meeting at 1600 hrs, would now reach the venue a couple of hours behind schedule.

As per the earlier programme, Ms Gandhi was to land in Coimbatore and take a helicopter to Erode for the meeting.

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