PM Modi completes 20 years in public life

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 7

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday completed 20 years as the head of a government, including over 13 years as Gujarat Chief Minister. Congratulating him, top BJP leaders lauded his leadership and credited him for ushering in “good governance and development”.

Home Minister Amit Shah, who has been a close aide of PM Modi for over three decades, said the journey of good governance and development that started on this day in 2001 when he took oath for the first time as the CM has continued uninterrupted.  The PM worked day and night for the people and country’s progress, he added.

BJP president J P Nadda said Modi pulled the country out of an atmosphere of disappointment and put it on the path to progress and becoming “vishwa guru”. “The PM worked like a ‘karma yogi’ and infused people with self-confidence about making a new India. I consider myself very lucky and blessed to have got the opportunity to work with him in the organisation, in his Cabinet and as BJP president,” he added.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also congratulated the PM, saying “may his popularity keep rising”.

Taking over as the CM of Gujarat on October 7, 2001, Modi served for four tenures to become the longest-serving CM of the state before taking over as the PM in 2014.