A Muslim tea stall owner in Surat has renamed his 15-year-old shop after BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi till the Gujarat Chief Minister becomes Prime Minister.

Known as 'Chistiya tea centre'  since the owner Fahim Tailor is a believer in Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti of Ajmer  the stall in the Muslim-dominated Sanjaynagar area of Limbayat in Surat now displays the banner of 'Namo tea stall' written in Gujarati, Hindi and Urdu with a picture of Modi flashing victory sign and a message of communal harmony on one side.

This is the third "Namo Tea stall" in the Limbayat area of Surat, with the earlier two set up by migrants from Bihar and Orissa. Few days ago, Bharat Apta from Orissa put up a picture of Modi and named his tea stall after him. And on Friday, along with Tailor, Champalal Mali from Bihar, also renamed his tea stall after the BJP leader. BJP municipal Councillor P V S Sarma MP C R Patil had attended the renaming of Tailor's stall.

The practice of naming tea stall after Modi began as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate started talking about his "humble beginnings as a tea vendor" in his public speeches.

"The reason behind putting the banner of 'Namo tea stall' is that we have seen his working style in the last 12 years in Gujarat. He has a good grip on administration which needs to be appreciated. Seeing his popularity, we have decided to put his name on our shop. We will see how it will change our business," said Tailor, who migrated from Maharashtra.

"We have seen that Modi's acceptability among the Muslims has been increasing day by day, and hope that by putting up such a banner on our shop our business will not be affected," added Tailor, who has decided to give two free cups of tea to senior citizens every day till Modi becomes PM.

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