Pawan Kumar, a 25-year-old Indian man from Uttar Pradesh, chopped off his index finger with a meat cleaver in desperation, after accidentally voting fro the wrong candidate in India’s national election.
Kumar became an overnight sensation, first in India, and then globally, thanks to a viral video of him with a bandaged index finger after he reportedly cut part of it off as self-punishment for voting for the wrong candidate. The young Dalit told reporters that he wanted to cast his vote in favor of SP-BSP-RLD candidate Yogesh Sharma, but got confused by the party symbols, and ended up voting for the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) instead. He couldn’t live with his mistake and decided to chop off his finger in desperation.
