Poster war in Surat

Senior Gujarat leader from the Congress Ahmed Patel maintains he is not a chief ministerial candidate. Now posters have emerged in Surat ahead of the Gujarat elections that have muddied the waters. These posters show Patel and soon-to-become Congress president Rahul Gandhi together and the copy, in Gujarati, reads: "To maintain the unity of the Muslim community and to make Ahmed Patel the 'Wazir-e-Alam' of Gujarat, the Muslim community is urged to vote for the Congress." Patel, a Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat, has alleged the posters are fake and has accused the state’s ruling party of "trying to divert the narrative from its performance of the last 22 years to a divisive agenda". He was never a chief ministerial candidate and will never be, Patel emphasised.