NEW DELHI: Not many are aware that Narendra Modi, who aspires to be India's prime minister soon, is a married man, and though he has not met his little known wife - Jashodaben, 62 - for 40 years, she wishes him well in his ambition, The Indian Express reported on Saturday.

According to the report the retired school teacher was married to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi when she was 17 – and separated after about three years claimed they were never divorced and that she spends much of her time now in spiritual quest.

Mrs Modi, according to the Express, gets a monthly pension of Rs14,000, and lives mostly with a brother and spends much of her time in prayer. In Ahmedabad to visit her extended family, she agreed to be interviewed by The Indian Express but refused to be photographed.

“We married when I was 17... I had quit studies once I went to his place and remember him saying he wanted me to pursue my education. He would mostly talk to me about completing my education. Initially he took interest in talking to me and even in the affairs of the kitchen,” said the woman whose picture is not available.

Asked if she was asked to keep a low profile, she said: “We have never been in touch and we parted on good terms as there were never any fights between us. I will not make up things that are not true. In three years, we may have been together for all of three months. There has been no communication from his end to this day.”

Mrs Modi said she reads everything that she can get on her husband.

“I read all the newspaper articles and also watch news on the television and like to read about him...I have never gone to meet him and we have never been in touch. I don't think he will ever call me. In whatever I say, I do not want it to harm him. I just wish that he progresses in whatever he does. I know he will become PM one day.”

Did Mr Modi tell her he was leaving her? “He told me once that ‘I will be travelling across the country and will go as and where I please; what will you do following me?’ When I came to Vadnagar to live with his family, he told me ‘why did you come to your in-laws’ house when you are still so young, you must instead focus on pursuing your studies.'..

The decision to leave was my own and there was never any conflict between us. He never spoke to me about the RSS or about his political leanings. When he told me he would be moving around the country as he wished, I told him I would like to join him.

However, on many occasions when I went to my in-laws’ place, he would not be present and he stopped coming there. He used to spend a lot of time in RSS shakhas. So I too stopped going there after a point and I went back to my father's house.”

Was she Mr Modi's legally wedded wife, she was asked. “Every time people take his name, I am also mentioned somewhere, even though in the background. Did you not come all the way and look all over, to find me and come and speak to me? If I was not his wife, would you have come to speak to me?

Did she feel hurt she was not recognised as his wife? “No,” she said.

“I don't feel bad, because I know that he is doing so due to destiny and bad times. In such situations he has to say such things and also has to lie. I don't see my situation as being bad because I feel, in a way, my luck has improved too.”

Did she ever consider getting married again? “After this experience, I don't think I want to. My heart is not into it,” Mrs Modi said.