PM Modi met his mother Heeraben, 98, on Tuesday morning in Gandhinagar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi revealed to film star Akshay Kumar why he doesn't stay with his mother or any family. "I was very, very young when I gave up all ties," he said in an interaction aired on Wednesday, a day after the third round of voting for the seven-phase national election.
Speaking to the Prime Minister at his 7, Lok Kalyan Marg residence in Delhi, Akshay Kumar asked whether he felt like having his family around, like his mother or brother. "Chhoti aayu mein chhod diya (I quit everything very early in life). Any attachment, maya...my training was such that I gave up all ties," he said in the chat dubbed a "non-political interaction" in the middle of elections.
Didn't he feel lonely in his big home? Not anymore, replied PM Modi. "Maybe when I left home at that age, I did feel troubled leaving my family, but not anymore," he said.
Explaining why his mother didn't live with him, he added: "My mother says what will I do at your home. What will I talk to you about? She also gets upset seeing me return late in the night."
Asked whether he sent his mother money regularly, PM Modi replied: "She sends me money. Whenever I meet her, she gives me sawa rupaye (Rs 1.25). She doesn't expect anything from me. No government money is spent on my family."
He clarified: "But that doesn't mean I am not attached to my mother...My life has become such that the country is my family and that is how I operate."
PM Modi met his mother Heeraben, 98, on Tuesday morning in Gandhinagar in his home state Gujarat, before heading to Ahmedabad to vote.
In images and videos, the Prime Minister was seen accepting sweets, a coconut and a shawl from his mother.
The prime minister had stayed at the Raj Bhavan in Gandhinagar the previous night before meeting his mother in the morning.