Prime Minister Narendra Modi is 67 today. He began his birthday, as he does every year, with a visit to his mother Heeraben Modi in Gandhinagar to seek her blessings.
With a packed schedule ahead in Gujarat today, the Prime Minister had reached his mother's home by 7.15 am and spent about half an hour there.
Heeraben Modi, 97, offered the PM a special sweet she had made for him and they chatted for a while before the PM touched her feet and left. He later tweeted pictures of the meeting and said - "A mother's love and blessings are the elixir of life."
He is now at the Raj Bhawan or Governor's Palace, where he is meeting the state's new Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and several other BJP leaders. He will later fly to Dahod in central Gujarat where he will inaugurate an irrigation scheme and address a rally of tribals.
He will also visit Navsari in Surat where he will distribute disability aid kits to over 1000 beneficiaries to set a Guinness Book of World Records.
This is PM Modi's third visit in a month to his home state Gujarat, where elections will be held next year. On a visit last month, the Prime Minster had at a public rally said he had not returned home as much as he should've after taking office as Prime Minister, and promised to better that record.
The state BJP believes frequent visits by PM Modi, who was chief minister of Gujarat for 13 years before he took charge in Delhi, will be critical to its chances of winning the state back in next year's election.
It faces what is seen as its toughest fight in decades as its state government grapples with two large uprisings - the Patel or Patidar agitation and the recent Dalit anger over a brutal assault on four young men by cow vigilantes.
As PM Modi arrived in Gujarat on Friday night, a Dalit activist Jignesh Mewani was detained at the Ahmedabad airport late night on his return from Delhi, to prevent any disruption at the PM's events. He was released this morning.
In Surat, about 100 odd Patel activists have been detained for the same reason. At a recent public meeting addressed by BJP president Amit Shah, supporters of Patidaar leader Hardik Patel went on the rampage, chanting his name and throwing furniture about.
With a packed schedule ahead in Gujarat today, the Prime Minister had reached his mother's home by 7.15 am and spent about half an hour there.
Heeraben Modi, 97, offered the PM a special sweet she had made for him and they chatted for a while before the PM touched her feet and left. He later tweeted pictures of the meeting and said - "A mother's love and blessings are the elixir of life."
He is now at the Raj Bhawan or Governor's Palace, where he is meeting the state's new Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and several other BJP leaders. He will later fly to Dahod in central Gujarat where he will inaugurate an irrigation scheme and address a rally of tribals.
He will also visit Navsari in Surat where he will distribute disability aid kits to over 1000 beneficiaries to set a Guinness Book of World Records.
This is PM Modi's third visit in a month to his home state Gujarat, where elections will be held next year. On a visit last month, the Prime Minster had at a public rally said he had not returned home as much as he should've after taking office as Prime Minister, and promised to better that record.
The state BJP believes frequent visits by PM Modi, who was chief minister of Gujarat for 13 years before he took charge in Delhi, will be critical to its chances of winning the state back in next year's election.
It faces what is seen as its toughest fight in decades as its state government grapples with two large uprisings - the Patel or Patidar agitation and the recent Dalit anger over a brutal assault on four young men by cow vigilantes.
As PM Modi arrived in Gujarat on Friday night, a Dalit activist Jignesh Mewani was detained at the Ahmedabad airport late night on his return from Delhi, to prevent any disruption at the PM's events. He was released this morning.
In Surat, about 100 odd Patel activists have been detained for the same reason. At a recent public meeting addressed by BJP president Amit Shah, supporters of Patidaar leader Hardik Patel went on the rampage, chanting his name and throwing furniture about.