AHMEDABAD, Sept 19: Indian Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi on Monday ended a three-day fast seen as an attempt to bury his controversial past and promote him as a serious prime ministerial contender.

The Gujarat chief minister, accused of complicity in anti-Muslim riots that swept the state in 2002, broke his self-styled “harmony” fast by sipping juice given to him by Hindu, Muslim and Christian supporters.

“My fast may have ended but my mission has not. My 'harmony' mission has united all of India,” Modi declared to a crowd in an air-conditioned auditorium in Gujarat's main commercial city of Ahmedabad.

“India and Indians should dream for bigger things. Nothing is impossible,” said Modi, using language seemingly geared to reaching out to a national audience.

Modi has sought to remould his image from a poster boy of Hindutva — or Hindu nationalism — into a hard-nosed corporate decision-maker who has driven Gujarat's rising prosperity.

Seeking to cast aside his image as a promoter of communal politics, he said: “I don't work for majorities or minorities but for all of Gujarat.”

Many of the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership heaped praise on Modi, even though he still has rivals within the party for a possible run for the office of premier in the 2014 elections.—AFP