Surat, 13 April 2012

Following are the photographs of Mansukhbhai Mandavia felicitation function in Surat, organized in presence of the Chief Minister.

The function was about honoring a new Rajya Sabha MP from Saurashtra by the people of Saurashtra settled in Surat.

Anti-Modi elements had tried their best to ensure that people, especially the Patel people don’t turn up in large number.

However attendance in the function was fairly well.

There’s mix opinion in local media persons about the presence of public in the function. While one set of journalists claim that portion in backside of the ground remained unoccupied, while other set of media persons believe that the crowd was as per expectation of organizers and anti-Modi brigade’s efforts to keep Patels away from the function have been almost failed.

Shri Modi attacked centre in his speech and congratulated Shri Mandavia. Modi said that as a person with organizational experience he knows that Mandavia’s future is bright.

Photo published in local newspaper GujaratMitra from backside of the venue. Photo lines say that due to problem with local key players of this function Shri Mathurbhai Savani and Nanubhai Vanani, a community didn’t turn up in full strength. Half of the chairs were unfilled till 8.00 pm. Contrary to target of 10,000 people, only 3,000 people were there at the venue. The Chief Minister also came late at 8.45 pm, till the time organizers had managed more crowd and the ground was packed. However excitement was lacking contrary to earlier rallies here. Announcer had to make announcement again and again asking people to give a round of applause. When Modi’s speech was on, some people were seen leaving the place.

Note: Twitter pals from Surat say that the venue was jam packed and even the terraces around were full. The excitement level was great.
Anti-Modi media trick exposed: Local newspaper Divya Bhaskar, which is clearly pro-Congress these days, has published a photograph showing empty chairs on the back side. However this photograph has been taken before the public meeting started, while people were still arriving. Look at the stage in the picture. Almost all the chairs on the stage are empty which means even the guests had not arrived at the time when this photo was clicked. It is clear that the photo was taken much in advance before the meeting actually started. Now with this photograph, the newspaper tries to convince the readers that Modi’s rally had no response!
Who did neutral reporting then? In this case, local newspaper Sandesh did a good job of neutral reporting. Sandesh story says that prior to Modi’s arrival some space was unoccupied. But before Modi arrived, all seats were full.