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While BJP party workers and colleagues conducted a 'Maha Aarti' at the Lord Jagannath temple in Ahmedabad and prayed for his well being and long life, Modi began his day by seeking blessings from his 95-year-old mother Hiraba. The Gujarat CM, who completed 63 years on Tuesday, met his mother at her residence in Gandhinagar early in the morning and sought her blessings. She gifted Modi holy book Gita and wished him well.
“I have faith that people's blessings won't go waste, it will give me strength to go on with my work,” Modi said after visiting his mother. Modi was on September 13 appointed as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate.
Modi also met former chief minister and his political adversary Keshubhai Patel at his residence and sought his blessings. Patel had parted ways with the BJP last year and floated his own party Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP).
On this occasion BJP members organised a 'Maha Aarti' to commemorate Modi's 64th birthday and his elevation as party's prime ministerial candidate. A special twitter handle #NamoBirthday has been created for those who want to wish the Gujarat chief minister. A special section has been created on Modi's official website which says, "It’s Shri Narendra Modi’s birthday on 17th September and what can be better day to send his best wishes. Log in and send best wishes to him." There is also provision to send e-greeting to the chief minister on his birthday.
The BJP Minority Morcha members celebrated Modi's birthday by cutting a massive 64-kg cake in minority dominated Jamalpur area of the city. They too wished him success in his new role in national politics.
The BJP also kicked off its mass membership drive under which it plans to enroll at least 100,000 people from the minority community in to the party. The nine-day drive which commenced from today will conclude on birth anniversary of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay (September 25), profound leader of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. This drive has been planned with an eye on the 2014 general elections where Modi will be playing a key role for the BJP as he is also heading the party's poll campaign committee.
In Surat a sweet shop owner announced a special discount of sweets for today. "Today being the birthday of Narendra Modi, we have introduced the Namo birthday discount offer, wherein customers will get discounts on all purchases they make," said shop owner Munnabhai Desai. Even the salesmen in the shop wore Modi masks while attending to customers. While in Jamnagar another sweet shop owner had embossed image of Modi on the sweets. .
