Modi on pilgrimage: Somnath to Jagannath

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi visited Odisha on Tuesday as a pilgrim but also briefly met BJP leaders before taking a flight to Nagpur.

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi visited Odisha on Tuesday as a pilgrim but also briefly met BJP leaders before taking a flight to Nagpur.

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Modi arrived at Biju Patnaik airport here by a chartered plane in the morning and then went to Puri, about 65 km east of Bhubaneswar, by road.

“I came from Somnath Dham (in Gujarat) to Jagannath Dham (in Puri) to seek blessings. I bow before the land of Lord Jagannath. May Jagannath bless the country and countrymen,” Modi told reporters in Odia after coming out of the Jagannath temple.

People of Odisha contributed to the development of Gujarat, he said.

Making another connect between the two states, he said when the sun rises in the east the first ray falls on the Sun temple in Konark, Orissa, and when it sets in the west its ray touches the Sun temple in Modhera, Gujarat.