Narendra Modi- A tea seller's journey to being the most popular leader in the world

New Delhi: The Morning Consult Political Intelligence, a global rating firm, which releases popularity ratings of world leaders has vehemently rated Prime Minister Narendra Modi as one of the most popular leaders in the world with over 77 per cent approval rating.

And while the story of a common tea-seller from Gujarat's Vadnagar and his stellar journey to holding the highest office of the country has been famously cited and globally celebrated, a close look at PM Modi's meteoric rise from being a common BJP karyakarta to the country's Prime Minister is a tale of his staunch nationalism and ability to make tough decisions that suit his party's larger vision for the India of the 21st century.

Born on September 17, 1950, to Damodardas Modi and Hiraba Modi in Gujarat's Vadnagar, Narendra Modi was the third of six children of the couple. The family stayed in a single storey house and his father sold tea at a tea stall at the Vadnagar Railway station.

Not many know that when floods wreaked havoc in the Tapi River, Modi, then 9, started a food stall along with his friends and donated the proceeds for relief work. He also served tea to the jawans who were returning from borders during the Indo-Pakistan war.

Not a surprise that in his young days, Modi wanted to serve in the Indian Army. His dreams to join the Sainik school in Jamnagar were devastated because of his family's financial condition. Years later, after becoming the PM, Modi fulfilled his dream of wearing the coveted Army uniform, when he visited the Siachen glacier in 2014.

In 1975, Modi was appointed general secretary of Gujarat Lok Sangharsh Samiti, an RSS committee that coordinated the opposition to the Indira Gandhi-imposed Emergency from Gujarat. During this period, he was forced to go underground and was involved in forming a network of workers who were wanted by the government.

In 1978, he was made the RSS Sambhag Pracharak for Surat and Vadodara. He later moved to Delhi and was involved in research work, that was focused on RSS' version of the history of the emergency era. In 1990, Narendra Modi was brought back to Gujarat and was actively involved in organizing LK Advani's Rath Yatra. After a brief break from politics in 1994, Modi returned to electoral politics, on the insistence of Advani and was central to BJP's 1995 win in Gujarat.

In October 2001, Modi took over as the chief minister of Gujarat replacing Keshubhai Patel whose health was deteriorating, and moreover, his leadership was being questioned in light of his government's handling of the 2001 Bhuj earthquake. Modi first took the oath as the Chief Minister of Gujarat on October 7, 2001.

In April 2002, in the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots, amid widespread calls for his resignation, Modi offered to step down as the CM of Gujarat. However, his resignation was not accepted during the BJP national executive meeting in Goa. On July 19, 2002, after an emergency meeting of his cabinet, the entire cabinet resigned and in the re-elections, Modi returned to power for the second term. That year, the BJP bagged 127 seats in the 182-seater Gujarat Assembly.

It was during this term that CM Modi emerged as the face of Gujarat and the man behind the economic development that the state. Interestingly, the US and European Union, which denied him a visa during his tenure as Gujarat CM, welcomed him with open arms after he rose to prominence and became the Prime Minister of the country in 2014.

There is a popular tale about how CM Narendra Modi offered land for the Tata Nano project in the western state after the Singur protests forced the company to move out of West Bengal. And while many companies followed the suit to make Gujarat their production hub during Modi's tenure, some of the most notable achievements that shaped the future of the state during his tenure were - the agricultural growth rate, which touched 10.97 per cent, real estate investments, which in 2007, touched a whopping Rs 6.6 trillion, electrification of every village in Gujarat, among others.

During his tenure as the CM, Gujarat's GDP growth rate averaged about 10 per cent. In 2013, the “Economic Freedom of the States of India” report ranked Gujarat as the first among 20 Indian states. It was during his tenure that Gujarat also topped the World Bank's "ease of doing business" for two consecutive years.

In 2014, after a high-octane campaign that projected him as the prime ministerial face of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Modi was elected as the Prime Minister of the country. The massive verdict for the BJP was attributed to the 'Modi wave' that witnessed BJP's vote share rise to 31 per cent. The 'acche din' and 'Abki baar Modi Sarkar' slogans became a household chant during one of the most energetic political campaigns in the country in the recent past. Quite predictably, the BJP won 282 seats, becoming the first political party since 1984, to win the elections with its own majority.

Modi, a candidate from Varanasi and Vadodara won both the seats, defeating, notably, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal in Varanasi by 371,784 votes. In his very first Independence Day address from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15, 2014, Modi gave the 'Jahan soch wahan shouchalay' call, marking a departure from the set norm and talking about basic issues such as cleanliness from the iconic fort. Over the years that followed, the Narendra Modi government rolled out and made popular several schemes such as Make in India - more recently rechristened as Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Digital India, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi among others.

Besides demonetization, which has often been criticized by the Opposition, and a section of economists, the notable decisions of the Modi government in its first term include the expedited acquisition of Rafale fighter jets from France. The government also amended the defence procurement policies to focus on indigenous development.

If the surgical strikes of 2016, after the Uri and Pathankot attacks and the Balakot operation towards the end of the first term, sent a stern message to India's neighbours that the country was no longer willing to deal diplomatically with terror, the decision to implement the longstanding demand of One Rank One Pension (OROP) assured war veterans that the Modi government was committed to ensuring the welfare of its soldiers even after they rendered their service.

In the General elections of 2019, Narendra Modi returned to power with the BJP bagging 303 seats, and the NDA tally touching 353. The highlight of the Narendra Modi government so far includes the abrogation of Article 370 and the decision to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. The farm laws, which the government had passed advocating that they were meant for the benefit of farmers, were reversed following protests by farmer bodies. The government has vehemently cleared its stand on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as well as Uniform Civil Code, however, how the man at the Centre of India's political canvas deals with them, remains a story in motion.