The jhalmuri seller in West Bengal’s Jhargram whose stall shot to national attention after Prime Minister Narendra Modi stopped there during his Assembly election campaign in April marked the PM’s birthday on Thursday by serving larger portions of the Bengali snack.
Vikram Kumar Sahu, who runs the Chavan Lal Special Jhalmuri stall near Raj College More, also displayed photographs from Modi’s visit and shared them on social media.
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Sahu wished Modi good health and a long life.
"The Prime Minister came to my shop and had jhalmuri. That moment is unforgettable for me. I wanted to celebrate his birthday here and remember that moment again," Sahu told reporters and customers.
Modi had stopped at Sahu’s roadside stall while travelling between election programmes in Jhargram. He spoke to Sahu and sampled jhalmuri before leaving a few minutes later.
Photographs and videos of the interaction, including footage shared on Modi’s social media accounts, went viral. The stall subsequently drew visitors who wanted to recreate the moment and make reels.
Contemporaneous reports said the video crossed 100 million views on Instagram within a day, while searches for "jhalmuri" also rose sharply.
The snack also featured in the BJP’s Bengal campaign, with reels, social media posts and party events highlighting the Modi-Sahu interaction.
Five months later, Sahu marked Modi’s birthday at the same stall, serving jhalmuri to customers and revisiting photographs from the Prime Minister’s visit.
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