New Delhi, October 7: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the latter entered 20th consecutive year as the democratically elected head of a government.

PM Modi had taken over as the Chief Minister of Gujarat on October 7, 2001.

"October 7 is a very important day in the country's history. In 2001, on this very same day PM Narendra Modi had taken oath as the Gujarat Chief Minister, and from that day the journey of daily setting new milestones in the interest of the nation and service of the people, without stopping, without relaxing started.

20th year of NaMO," Shah's tweet read (roughly translated from Hindi).

PM Modi had further returned to power in Gujarat thrice, in 2002, 2007 and 2012, respectively.

During the third term as the Gujarat CM, however, Modi fought the 2014 general elections. His popularity, which was going through the roof both inside and outside the State, led to the BJP declaring him as its prime ministerial candidate in 2013.

He had been projected as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate for the PM post. Defeating the Congress-led government which held sway at the Centre, CM Modi left Gujarat to take over the reins at the Centre.

Since then, he has solidified his position with the NDA coalition retaining its position in the Centre with an even bigger margin in the 2019 general elections.