"Mamata Didi Still Sends Kurtas She Picks Every Year": PM To Akshay Kumar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has shared that Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sends him gifts three-four times a year. "People will be surprised and I should not say this in the election season, but Mamata didi sends me gifts every year. She still sends me one or two kurtas that she picks herself a year," PM Modi told actor Akshay Kumar in an interaction broadcast on Wednesday, a day after the third phase of the national election that ends on May 19.

The interview was telecast a day after one of his sharpest attacks on Mamata Banerjee at a rally in West Bengal on Tuesday.

PM Modi went on to tell Akshay Kumar that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sent him new types of sweets every year. "Once Mamata didi found out, she also started sending me sweets once or twice a year," he chuckled.

The remarks stood out a day after PM Modi said at a rally in Bengal's Asansol: "Our didi, contesting a handful of seats, is dreaming of becoming Prime Minister. If the PM's post could be auctioned, then the Congress and didi would come with whatever they have looted through corruption. Didi, yeh PM pad auction mein nahi hai jo Sharda, Narada ke paiso se kharida jaa sake (this post is not on auction that it can be bought from the money from Sharada and Narada). One needs the blessings of 130 crore Indians to get to the post." The speech also featured another phrase he has used to attack the Chief Minister in these polls: "Speed-breaker didi".

In his "non-political interaction" with the actor, the Prime Minister also responded to a question on whether he had friends in the opposition. "Yes, very good friends, we share meals too."

He said when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat, he once had a friendly chat with Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, which had the media wondering. "Ghulam Nabi Azad and I have had several chai sessions and people are surprised how an RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) person like me is friends with Azad," he said.