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Congress leader Madhusudan Mistry today filed his nomination from the Vadodara Lok Sabha constituency here.
Mistry, currently a Rajya Sabha member, is taking on Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
Mistry had represented Sabarkantha constituency in Lok Sabha in 2004; he lost there in 2009.
The sixty-nine years old leader was accompanied by Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly Shankersinh Vaghela, state Congress chief Arjun Modhwadiya and others when he filed his papers before the district electoral officer.
Modi is expected to file nomination on the last day, April 9.
Mistry later said he had studied at the local MS University, and people of the city would embrace him.
"About 15,000 people took part in our rally here today before I filed my papers, despite the 40 degree Celsius temperature. This indicates my eventual victory," said Mistry, who is supposed to be close to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.
He said he would expose Modi's so-called Gujarat development model.
Meanwhile, District Collector Vinod Rao informed that apart from Mistry, Narendra Rawat, city Congress chief, filed a nomination as a dummy candidate.
