People from all walks of life wish PM on birthday

Greetings from all quarters, including his political rivals, poured in Monday for Prime Minister Narendra Modi who celebrated his 68th birthday in his parliamentary constituency Varanasi.

Modi thanked them for their wishes in a series of tweets.

President Ramnath Kovind, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, BJP chef Amit Shah, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah were among the first to greet Modi.

"Birthday greetings to our Prime Minister @narendramodi. Wish him a long life and many years of dedicated service to the people of the country," Kovind tweeted.

Former president Pranab Mukherjee hoped that the PM is blessed with a long, healthy and happy life and continue to serve the nation for many more years to come.

"Pranab Da, your wishes are always a source of strength for me. Thank you," Modi responded.

Bollywood personalities Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor, Akshay Kumar and Madhuri Dixit also wished the PM on Twitter.

Naidu, who is in Malta, called up Modi to greet him.

DMK leader M K Stalin as well as Punjab Chief Minister Amrinder Singh, Bihar's Nitish Kumar and Odisha's Naveen Patnaik and Modi's Cabinet colleagues, including Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, also extended their greetings.

Shah hailed Modi's leadership, saying India under him had become synonymous with development and he had infused energy into every section of society like never before.

India has a government under Modi, which is committed to the development of the poor, farmers and every section of society, the BJP chief said in a tweet.

Praying for a long and healthy life for the prime minister, he described Modi as a leader who is loved by all and has provided a decisive and visionary leadership to country.

Gandhi wished good health and happiness to the prime minister on his birthday.

"Happy Birthday to our PM, Narendra Modi ji! Wishing him good health and happiness always," he said on Twitter.

Modi was scheduled to be in Narur village during the day to interact with children of a primary school, which is aided by a non-profit organisation, Room to Read.

Later, at the Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) campus, the prime minister was scheduled to interact with students of the Kashi Vidyapeeth and the children assisted by them, according to the Prime Minister's Office.