Surat: A businessman Suresh Agarwal has bid Rs 1 crore for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘controversial’ pinstripe suit that he wore during Barack Obama’s India visit in January.

The suit is up for auction starting today in Surat. The opening bid for the suit was put up by BJP leader Rajubhai Agarwal at Rs 51 lakh.

Suresh Agarwal from Surat who made a bid for Rs 1 Crore for PM Modi’s suit. (Photo: ANI Twitter)

The suit that created waves and kicked up a political storm is being auctioned along with 455 items that Modi had received as gifts during his nearly nine-month long tenure to generate funds for the Prime Minister's ambitious 'Clean India Mission'.

Modi during his chief ministerial tenure in Gujarat had initiated a trend to auction the gifts that he received in a year and it was donated to Kanya Kelavani Yojna for girl child education, he said.

Modi was photographed wearing the suit during his summit talks with Obama in Hyderabad House in Delhi on January 25 and at a joint media appearance that followed the meeting.

Photographs of the suit on a closer inspection showed that the stripes were actually tiny letters spelling out his name in full-- Narendra Damodardas Modi--and embroidered on the fabric vertically down the stripe.

Discussions on whether the suit, which from a distance appeared to be a classic navy blue pinstripe design, was fine style and good form or a thinly-disguised show of narcissism coursed through social media, even attracting global media attention.

Tweets flew thick and fast, including comparison with former Egypt President Hosni Mubarak who is known to have a similar outfit.