From correspondents in Delhi, India, 06:32 PM IST

Other candidates at the end of a political rally would have normally reached out to voters and engaged in perfunctory banter, but not Jitendra Deshprabhu, a Nationalist Congress Party candidate in Goa.

He chose instead to rest his strapping, heavy frame after a long day and pull a few drags from a cigarette - only pausing to shake hands reluctantly with the few supporters who hung around trying to seek him out.

The dozens of policemen nearby certainly did not seem to mind his smoking in a public place, which is an offence as there's a ban on it.

Considering the skulduggery he has had to ward off from leaders of the NCP and the Congress the moment he was allotted a ticket to contest from the North Goa seat with barely 15 days to go before the polls, perhaps Deshprabhu deserves to plonk himself in public on those cushions and blow nicotine rings at the end of what was probably his last 'big' rally before D-day Thursday.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)