A 55-year-old man has come to Vadodara all the way from Tamil Nadu to fight his 159th election, against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Narendra Modi, also the saffron party's prime ministerial face.
Tyre trading firm owner K Padmarajan's aim is not to win, but set a world record of fighting the maximum number of elections.
Padmarajan, a qualified homoeopathic doctor, is up against it in more ways than one, having lost all his 158 poll fights so far.
He is a fair way behind Nagarmal Bajoria in notching up numbers. Bajoria - better known as 'Dhartipakad' (one who clings on) - has contested 184 elections. He too has lost all his poll fights. What's more, Bajoria too wants to challenge Modi and register his 185th contest.
Then, Padmarajan also has to scan the poll fight numbers of other 'Dhartipakads' such as Kaka Joginder Singh from Delhi and Mohan Lal, a cloth merchant from Bhopal.
Having no political ambition or hopes of winning, Padmarajan filed his nomination as an independent candidate from Vadodara Lok Sabha seat on Thursday.
"This is my 159th nomination. I call myself as the Election King of India. I have fought elections since the last 25 years just to set a world record. I will continue fighting elections till I accomplish my aim," he said.
{{/usCountry}}"This is my 159th nomination. I call myself as the Election King of India. I have fought elections since the last 25 years just to set a world record. I will continue fighting elections till I accomplish my aim," he said.
{{/usCountry}}Padmarajan claimed he had spent more than Rs 12 lakh till date on filing nominations.
A native of Mettur in Tamil Nadu, Padmarajan got attracted towards Vadodara after Modi chose the seat, along with Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
"I usually prefer to fight against popular leaders. Earlier, I fought against Atal Bihari Vajpayee, APJ Abdul Kalam, Pratibha Patil, Manmohan Singh, etc. Winning or losing doesn't matter to me," he said.
Not just Lok Sabha and assembly elections, Padmarajan contests and loses as an independent in Rajya Sabha, presidential and vice-presidential polls too.
"I fought my first election in 1988. I don't have any political agenda, so I never do any canvassing. I am doing it only for records," he said.
Though Padmarajan never keeps a track of how many votes he gets, his best performance came in hometown Mettur.
"I fought the assembly election from Mettur in 2011 and secured 6,273 votes, the highest I have secured till date."