Puri: Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought the blessings of Padma Shri awardee tribal poet Purnamasi Jani during a public meeting in Kandhamal, Odisha. The 80-year-old poet and social activist has composed over 50,000 devotional songs in Kui, Odia, and Sanskrit, and she was awarded the Padma Shri honor in 2021.

The Padma Awards, instituted in 1954, are one of the highest civilian honors of India and are announced annually on the eve of Republic Day. A video of the Prime Minister draping a stole on her and bowing down to touch the poet's feet, who is known as Tadisaru Bai, was widely shared on social media platforms.

During the public address in Kandhamal, PM Modi also paid homage to Narishakti and expressed his gratitude to Tula Bahra Ji, a mother with nothing of her own, who honored him.

Meanwhile, PM Modi challenged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to name the districts of Odisha and their respective capitals without seeing them on a paper. "If the CM cannot name the districts of the state, will he know your pain?" Modi asked. He also mentioned that after the elections in the state, which is holding simultaneous elections to Assembly and parliamentary constituencies, there will be, "For the first time, a double-engine government in Odisha."

"India has made up its mind that the NDA will cross 400 (in the Lok Sabha). The people of Congress must note that the country has now decided that on June 4 they won't get the seats that are needed to be the opposition; they will be limited below 50 seats," PM Modi said.

Additionally, he launched an attack on Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, whose comment on Pakistan went viral recently. "Time and again, Congress tries to scare its own country. They say 'sambhal ke chalo Pakistan ke pass atom bomb hai'. They talk about Pakistan's bomb, but the condition of Pakistan is such that they don't know how to keep it, and they are looking for a buyer to sell their bombs, but no one wants to buy them as people know about the quality," PM Modi said.

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