Why did Karnataka's veteran RSS leader get call from PM Modi?

Mangaluru, Apr 25: Senior RSS leader H Somashekhar Bhatt on Saturday morning received a call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, enquiring about his health.

It is reportedly said that Bhatt got emotional hearing the PM Modi's voice at the other end as the conversation began with 'Somashekharji' and spoke for about six minutes.

The 85-year-old veteran RSS leader recalled how the Jana Sangh came to power in Udupi municipality under the leadership of V S Acharya in 1968 and about his association with the Sangh Parivar through the decades and his imprisonment during the Emergency.

Somashekhar Bhatt, the former Udupi municipality president, later said it was a rare honour for him. "I am very glad that PM Modi called and spoke to me. I shared the experience of meeting him at the Jaipur session. Asked to take care of health and expressed concern," he said to a media organisation.

It should be noted that the Prime Minister is been calling several senior functionaries of the party who worked for the Sangh Parivar in the time of adversities to build up the BJP in its present form and seeking advice from them.

He had also called in recent days former MLA Ram Bhat who was elected from Puttur in Dakshina Kannada and D H Shankar Murthy, who was the former chairman of the state legislative council, BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel tweeted.