UK Conservative candidate goes viral with bizarre campaign featuring PTI song

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Web Desk
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Tiger Patel holds up peace signs atop a play frame. Photo: Twitter

A Conservative hopeful has gone viral on the internet for his bizarre "playground" election campaign video that features a popular PTI song.

In a video, Tiger Patel, a Tory candidate for the Audley and Queen’s Park ward in Blackburn, can be seen walking along an empty children's park, showing broken swings in an attempt to highlight the abysmal situation of playgrounds. 

"Tabdeeli Ayi Re", a famous song of Pakistani political party, the PTI, (which also features vocals from Sindh Governor Imran Ismail) can be heard playing in the background as Patel roams about the deserted playground. 

Wearing a coat atop the traditional Pakistani kurta shalwar, Patel bends down at one point in the video, in front of a placard that reads: VOTE CONSERVATIVE for a positive vision for Blackburn!!!"

You can barely make out the lyrics of the song, drowned out by the sound of the fast-blowing wind. 

He can then be seen in the video, roaming around the playing ground, randomly pushing a swing and pulling on a chain. 

The Conservative hopeful then stands atop a playing frame and raises his hands in peace signs as the video concludes. 

Sunday Times journalist Hannah Al-Othman posted the video on Twitter, which was like by more than 15,000 people and retweeted 2,200 times at least. 

Twitter had a field day commenting on the video. 

The Guardian writer Hannah Parkinson enjoyed the video a lot. 

James uses a bit of wordplay to liven things up some. 

Gary likened Patel climbing the stairs of the play frame to boarding the Air Force One. 

Alan Robinson came up with the perfect caption for Patel's campaign. 

Drunkentrooper (how apt) said he would vote for Patel only to find out what his policies were. 

However, Patel committed a serious mistake when he posed at the very end of the video, atop the playing frame. What he didn't realise was the graffiti on the bottom of the frame was a crude one; depicting male genitalia. 

Speaking to Asian Image, Patel said: “It was a genuine mistake. The person filming it did not see it either. It only came to our attention after we sent it out.

“I am not bothered about it one bit,” he added. “It was just an error.”

In the same interview, he expressed his admiration for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, saying that the two were similar as both were popular in Blackburn. 

Patel, who has run previously as an independent, said he was inspired to run as a Conservative candidate after seeing the British prime minister make speeches on TV.

This is the second election in which Patel is contesting and similarly, not the first bizarre video that has helped him garner attention. 

A couple of years ago, he filmed a video walking down a street with the "Eye of the Tiger" playing in the background. He morphs into a tiger in the video, at the end.