Man and myth collide as Modi eyes final ascent to power

Narendra Modi spent his childhood in a modest three-room dwelling made of mud and brick nestled in a narrow, crowded lane in the town of Vadnagar. The tea stall his father ran with the help of his sons is just as it was then, a small shed of patched blue-grey tin on the platform of the ramshackle railway station nearby. Fast forward nearly 60 years and Modi stands on the cusp of leading the world's biggest democracy, after an election beginning Monday that looks set to make his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the country's biggest. Family members, friends and ordinary people interviewed by Reuters in Modi's native state of Gujarat put his remarkable journey down to single-minded ambition, an eye for opponents' weaknesses and his grasp of economic management. One of the defining moments of Modi's career was in 2002, shortly after he became Gujarat's chief minister, when more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were slaughtered in mob violence. Modi has always vehemently denied that he allowed, or even encouraged, the bloodshed, driven by a Hindu nationalist agenda, and a Supreme Court inquiry found no evidence to prosecute him. Man and myth often collide when it comes to Modi. His presence is ubiquitous after a meticulously stage-managed election campaign that has electrified the country and dominated the media, yet little is known about his personal life.