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Modi meets mum, 95, after Indian election landslide

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on Sunday (26) dropped in on his 95-year-old mother after his election landslide, a day ahead of a victory rally in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi.

Modi, 68, told his 47.6 million Twitter followers that he wanted to "seek blessings" from his mother Hiraba Modi in his home state of Gujarat in western India after his massive win.


"People this time have voted to support our programmes and a strong government. They have voted for stability and security," Modi told workers of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat earlier.

"The coming five years are going to be unprecedented for India as well as the world. It is time for India to regain it position globally. India will be influencing the world economy," he said.

Varanasi, the location for Monday's victory rally before his new government was due to be sworn in on Thursday, was Modi's constituency in the election which ended last week.

The choice of the city enables Modi to burnish his Hindu credentials, being one of the holiest places in India's majority religion where the faithful are cremated on wooden pyres beside the sacred Ganges.

The 68-year-old Modi told voters that despite hailing from Gujarat, he wasn't an outsider but Varanasi's "son of the soil".

After an acrimonious campaign Modi's BJP defied predictions of a dip in support increased its majority in the election, sweeping 303 out of 543 elected seats in parliament.

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Modi expresses grief as nine killed in Indian temple stampede

People gather at Venkateswara temple, at Kasibugga in Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh, Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (PTI Photo)

Modi expresses grief as nine killed in Indian temple stampede

AT LEAST nine people were killed and 18 injured in a stampede at a Hindu temple in southern India on Saturday (1), after tens of thousands of devotees crowded into a site built to hold just 2,000 people.

The tragedy occurred at the Venkateswara Swamy temple in Kasibugga town in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh state at around 11.30am local time.

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