PM Narendra Modi's controversial 'name-striped' suit on display at an auction in Surat, Gujarat. (Agence France-Presse photo)
Going going...the country's most famous suit still isn't gone...and the bidding price for it has shot up to Rs 1.25 crore.
Rajesh Maheshwari made that outsize offer this morning for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's navy suit embroidered with the letters of his name in vertical stripes. Mr Maheshwari, a nursery school teacher in Surat, said he represents "Global Friends of Modi", a consortium of admirers of the PM scattered across the globe.
The PM's bandhgala suit, worn during last month's meeting in Delhi with President Barack Obama, is among 450 items that are being auctioned in the port city of Surat in his home state of Gujarat. The money raised from the auction will be used for the PM's project to clean the Ganga.
"It is impossible for a middle class man to bid for such a suit. After this event was reported in the media, our friends discussed it and planned to make a bid. We decided to take contributions of Rs 50,000 each from a group of 250 people and collect this amount," said Mr Maheshwari to NDTV.
The crowd-sourced bid is a good investment, said Mr Maheshwari. "We are young people. Many of us are yet to get married. People spend Rs 10 crore on a wedding. Imagine how proud a groom will be to wear the suit worn by India's Prime Minister on a historic occasion. We can also charge Rs 1,000 for a selfie with the suit and donate that money for children's education."
The opposition has said the suit, embroidered over and over with the letters of the PM's name, exposes his narcissism.
The three-day auction ends tomorrow; all the items on offer were gifted to the Prime Minister. The bid for his bespoke suit, now on display on a statue of Mr Modi, started at Rs 51 lakh on Wednesday morning and had doubled by the evening.