Modi eyes third win in election

NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi often says he likes to think big, dream big and act big.

Having sold tea at a railway station as a boy while his mother washed dishes to make ends meet, the man who looks set to be only the second Indian to win three national elections in a row has come a long way from his humble beginnings. And, he is still thinking big.

Opinion polls ahead of the election starting on April 19 predict he will equal the three-term record of India’s first prime minister, the Western-educated and wealthy Jawaharlal Nehru, who famously called India’s independence in 1947 a “tryst with destiny”.

If he wins, it may be the 73-year-old Modi’s last term in office and he wants to cement a legacy of setting India on the path to abolishing poverty and becoming a fully developed nation by 2047, the 100th year of independence from British colonial rule.

He has set a tentative target of increasing the size of the economy by about eight times to $29 trillion by then and the per-capita income by about seven times to nearly $18,000, apart from securing a permanent seat at the UN Security Council.

“I am dedicating every moment to making India a developed country,” Modi said at a campaign rally this month. “That’s why I am working 24X7 for 2047.”