Vadodara, 3 April 2014

Congress party’s Vadodara Lok Sabha seat candidate Madhusudan Mistry was detained today around noon by police after he attempted to remove Narendra Modi’s hoarding opposite local Congress office with party workers. Mistry and his supporters were refusing to leave a road after failed attempt to remove Modi’s hoarding. Police had to use some force to clear the road.

There are 1,000 hoardings featuring BJP candidate Narendra Modi on light poles on all major roads in Vadodara city. The light poles are located on central verge/road divider.

BJP had booked all major advertisement kiosks and hoardings covering all prime-locations across Vadodara around 18 days back.

Later when Madhusudan Mistry was declared Congress candidate, he insisted that he should be given equal share of hoardings/kiosks to place his campaign.

The Vadodara Municipal Corporation permitted kiosks and hoardings are operated by private contractors. They told Madhusudan Mistry that around 1,000 kiosks and hoardings were already booked by BJP 18 days ago for entire pre-election period.

The contractors showed 3,000 other spots where Madhusudan Mistry could place his ads, however Mistry insisted that he should get the kiosks/hoardings only at prime locations in city and Narendra Modi’s 50% hoardings should be removed to give Congress campaign a space.

Mistry had filed complaint before district level election commission officer in this regard. The complaint was forwarded to Chief Electoral Officer(CEO) in Gandhinagar for guidance. It is learnt that CEO, Gujarat has sought guidance on this issue from Chief Election Commissioner, Delhi.

Mistry yesterday gave an ultimatum to election commission and threatened to remove Narendra Modi’s hoardings after 11.00 am on Thursday, 3rd April. Local election official however clearly conveyed that election commission wouldn’t work under pressure of someone’s ultimatum.

Mistry today morning walked the talk and climbed up a ladder and tried to remove Narendra Modi’s hoarding on central verge light pole opposite local Congress office. Mistry described this programme as symbolic. Due to obstruction to traffic, the Police detained handful of Congress workers gathered there.

Author’s note: Madhusudan Mistry is not even noticed by voters in Vadodara. There’s every chance that he may lose his deposit. Mistry is desperately trying to get attention, locally just to prove a point that he too is in fray, and nationally to reminding the nation again that he is challenging Narendra Modi. Why would a private contractor remove his pre-booked legal advertisement hoardings and provide 50% banners to someone else suddenly? Under which rule Mistry is seeking Election Commission to force removal of someone’s legally executed and run campaign? How private operators can be forced to vacate pre-booked hoardings for someone else? Why Congress didn’t wake up early and book hoardings? This is pure Rakhi Sawantgiri or Arvind Kejriwalgiri attempted by Mistry, and it seems Mistry will try similar gimmicks throughout the campaign period. City unit BJP president said, Madhusudan Mistry may tomorrow demand that if one family has two sons and both of them are campaigning for BJP, one of them should be reserved for Congress campaign. Voters of Sanskar Nagari may not react well to Mistry’s such behavior.