She smiles child-like, soaking in the attention as the prime minister designate?s wife. Jashodaben, 62,who will also be under SPG protection due to her status as a prime minister?s wife, is awaiting an invitation to Modi?s swearing-in ceremony in Delhi on Monday.

?It is the happiest thing for me that he has become the prime minister,? she told The Indian Express on Friday, in an exclusive interview.

?No invitation has been given to me so far to attend it, but if I get one then I will surely go, why would I not go?? says Jashodaben, who is just back from a two-week tour of south India that ended at Tirupati.

Agreeing to take SPG cover, she says that she would even go to Delhi if called. ?If he calls me I will go. After all it is my husband who is calling me and not someone else,? she says.

From Modi?s entire family, his mother Hiraba finds a special mention. ?I shared a good rapport with Hiraba. She used to treat me well and we had briefly met once, years after our marriage. I may go and meet her.?

Jashodaben says she last spoke with Modi on January 1, 1987 (the year in which Modi joined the BJP). Asked to recall a happy moment, she says coyly, ?Once I had gone to meet him with Hiraba at the RSS shakha in Vadnagar. He had hurt his hand and I put medicine on it. Another time he had acted in a play called ?Ek Phool, Do Maali? for which I went. I told him later that he was very good in it. If it is in my fate that we are meant to be together then we will be. I have also moved forward in life because of him. I have never interfered in his life and neither has he in mine.?

Flanked by her relatives, she takes questions at her nephew?s modest tenement in Ahmedabad, dressed in a colourful floral saree teamed with a dark pink blouse and neatly pinned-up hair. Her right hand ring finger has a permanent vermillion mark, indicating her devout way of life.

This paper was the first to interview Jashodaben in January last, after Modi was announced the BJP?s prime ministerial candidate. In April, Modi who used to put a dash in the spouse column in the affidavits filed so far, declared her as his wife in the nomination form filed in Vadodara for the Lok Sabha elections. Ask her how she felt and she smiles and says, ?Since it was made compulsory, he (Modi) admitted to it. I felt good… After so many years I felt good that he remembered me. I felt very happy on hearing this, why won?t I feel happy… He has never publicly said that he was unmarried…?

On whether she feels pride as his wife, she says, ?I am his wife and will always remain his wife. I am proud that he is my husband. I have experienced the greatest joy that he is PM now. I will go and meet him when the time comes.?

She has never been to any of Modi?s swearing-in ceremonies as chief minister or to any of his public meetings, because, ?Emna virodhi ghana hoye che, etle pehla pan hun temna prasango ma nathi gai (He has a lot of detractors so I never went to any of his events right from the beginning).?

She claims that she knew in 2002 that he would become Vada Pradhan (prime minister). ?I had said in a TV interview in 2002 that 101% he would become prime minister. He had dedicated himself to the nation at a young age. He would never buckle to society?s norms, I knew he would make it big.? Closing the conversation with a prayer, she says, ?I hope he rules for ten years serving the country and lives for 125 years!?