Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's poll rally in Congress-ruled Goa on Wednesday was marred by an embarrassing technical glitch in the sound system forcing him to sit on the dais for nearly 30 minutes till the problem was fixed.
With campaigning for the March 3 assembly elections coming to an end on Thursday, Singh's rally was the last major campaign event for the Congress and in his brief speech he said the ruling party wants development of Goa but not at the cost of environment.
Barely two minutes into his speech, Singh was not audible to an estimated 30,000-strong crowd as the sound system went off abruptly.
Apparently unaware that the sound system has failed, Singh continued his address for the next few minutes before some leaders on the stage drew his attention to the audio failure after a section in the crowd pointed out that he could not be heard.
The sound system was restored with one of the speakers being made operational but only after about half-an-hour during which the prime minister sat patiently on the dais and in between chatted with Nationalist Congress Party leader and Union minister Praful Patel, who was among those present on the stage.
Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, Goa Congress chief Subhash Shirodkar and GPCC Working President Francis Sardinha, among others, were also seated on the dais.
