Narendra Modi- a Dubrajpur voter in Birbhum! It might sound surprising. Has he removed his name from the voter list of Ahmedabad to become a voter in Bengal? Or is he a voter in Gujarat as well as in Bengal? Such questions have repeatedly followed the 50-year-old Narendra Modi, who lives in Ward No. 13 of Dubrajpur Municipality. That is not all - he also has a sister named Mamata. Her last name, though, is Agarwal. As the recent voter list was released, the chatter once again ignited throughout Birbhum regarding this local shop owner by the name of Narendra Modi. Witnessing all this, "Bengal's Modi" himself just bursts out laughing. In the neighbourhood, everyone is familiar with Narendra Modi as "Munna," which is what they affectionately call him.
But whenever he ventures out for work, people start firing questions the moment they hear his name. Smiling, the Bengali Modi says that he has three sisters, and the eldest among them is Mamata Agarwal, who resides in Kolkata.
The ancestral home of the family is in Rajasthan, but their life is now rooted in Bengal. Narendra Modi says, "My family gave me the name Narendra Modi much before anyone had heard the name of our Prime Minister. Now I actually feel good about it. People tease me and say, 'See, Narendra Modi has come!' My sister's name is Mamata Agarwal. We have a very affectionate sibling relationship.”
Divyendu Rajak, who works in Narendra Modi's shop, adds, "Our country’s Prime Minister and my employer share the same name - it feels great! Sometimes we even joke, saying our Prime Minister has come to the shop.”
Local Trinamool and BJP leaders have also accepted this coincidence in a sporting mood. BJP leader Satyaprakash Tiwari and Dubrajpur town Trinamool Congress president Swarup Acharya also agree on that.
Satyaprakash Tiwari states, "We always knew him as Naren. It was only when we saw the voter list that we realised his full name is Narendra Modi. He’s our neighbour, like a brother to us. It’s quite amusing that one household has both a Narendra and a Mamata!”
Conversely, Swarup Acharya, Trinamool Congress president of Dubrajpur town, said, “Narendra Modi as a name - and on top of that, a sister named Mamata! It’s purely coincidental.”
