No buyers for Modi's chair in Agra

The chair BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi sat on during a recent rally here was up for grabs but there are no takers anymore.

Agra's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member Ramshankar Katheria was the first to show interest in buying the chair Modi sat on during the Vijay Shankh Naad rally Nov 21.

Two legislators - Yogendra Upadhya and Jagan Garg - too offered to buy the chair. Katheria, however, later said he never offered to buy the chair. "It was a media story," he said.

Another party member, Kaushlendra Chauhan, said he was willing to buy the chair at any price, even Rs.10 lakh. But he changed his mind.

As a face-saving gimmick, the party leaders said the chair was too valuable to be sold.

President of the Braj Kshetra of BJP, Purushottam Khandelwal, however, said the party had nothing to do with the sale and purchase of the chair.

"It could be a personal matter, but the party is focused on service of the people and not the chair," he said.

Earlier reports in the media had said that the chair had become hot property with many wanting to buy it as a souvenir. But later the tent and furniture house, owned by BJP leader Pramod Upadhyay, said offers were made but "I will not sell the chair at any cost".

Two days later there were reports suggesting there was a clone of the chair. Leaders clarified there were two similar chairs, one for Modi and the other for the party president Rajnath Singh. The latest buzz is that there are four similar chairs.

A sofa used by Modi in a Jhansi rally was touted as a prized souvenir for sale. But the price never crossed Rs.30,000. Also, no one came forward to buy the sofa, BJP leaders confided.

--Indo-Asian news Service

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