PM Modi's Varanasi office listed on OLX for 'sale'; 4 arrested
Varanasi (UP), Dec 18: Four people have been arrested for allegedly posting an online advertisement listing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Varanasi office for "sale", police said on Friday.
The accused had taken a picture of the "Jansampark Kaaryalay (public relations office)" of Modi, who represents Varanasi in the Lok Sabha, and put it "up for sale" on OLX website, they said.
The office is located in the Jawahar Nagar locality of the city, and it falls under the Bhelupur police station limits, Varanasi Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Amit Pathak said.
"Yesterday, it came to our notice that the prime minister's office here has been put up on sale on OLX website. An FIR was immediately lodged at the Bhelupur police station, and the matter is being investigated," Pathak said.
"Four people involved in the case have been taken in custody," the SSP said, adding that the person who took the picture and put it on the website is among them.
The accused are being questioned, and further legal proceedings are being carried out, he said.
Prime Minister Modi, a four-time chief minister of Gujarat, was first elected to the Lok Sabha from Varanasi in 2014 and then re-elected from the constituency in 2019.
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Cong's Surat candidate whose nomination form was rejected resurfaces, says party betrayed him
Surat (PTI): Suspended Congress leader Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected over discrepancies leading to BJP winning the Surat Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat unopposed, resurfaced on Saturday after 20 days and alleged it was the grand old party that had betrayed him first in 2017.
Kumbhani said he was silent all these days because of his respect for state party president Shaktisinh Gohil and the party's Rajkot Lok Sabha candidate Paresh Dhanani.
"Congress leaders are accusing me of betrayal. However, it was the Congress which betrayed me first in the 2017 assembly elections when my ticket for Kamrej Assembly seat in Surat was cancelled at the last moment. It was the Congress which made the first mistake, not me," Kumbhani told reporters here.
"I did not want to do this but my supporters, office staff and workers were upset because the party is being run by five self-proclaimed leaders in Surat and they neither work nor allow others to work. Though AAP and Congress are part of INDIA alliance, these leaders raised objections when I used to campaign with AAP leaders here," he claimed.
Asked if the turn of events in the ongoing Lok Sabha poll was his revenge on the Congress, Kumbhani refused to give a direct reply and reiterated his charge about cancellation of ticket in the 2017 state polls.
Kumbhani, who had earlier served as a Congress corporator in the Surat Municipal Corporation, fought the 2022 assembly polls from Kamrej but lost to the BJP.
On April 21, Kumbhani's nomination form was rejected after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming they had not signed on the document.
Incidentally, the nomination form of the Congress' substitute candidate Suresh Padsala was also rejected, ending the party's presence in the fray.
On April 22, BJP's Mukesh Dalal was declared elected unopposed from Surat after all other candidates, including one from the BSP, withdrew their nominations.
Due to a pre-poll alliance with Congress, the AAP had not fielded its candidate from Surat.
Kumbhani had gone incommunicado since April 22. He was later suspended by the Congress, which blamed him for the rejection of the nomination form and also accused him of "connivance with the BJP".
Lok Sabha polls were held in a single phase in Gujarat on May 7. Results for 25 out of the state's 26 seats will be declared on June 4.
