PM Modi eats jhalmuri, now Google searches for it hit 22-year high

Google searches for 'jhalmuri' have hit their highest level in 22 years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi stopped for the Bengali street snack during a campaign visit to Jhargram in West Bengal.

Modi made an unscheduled stop on Sunday and savoured jhalmuri, a popular snack made of puffed rice, green chillies and spices, at a nondescript shop in the district.

The prime minister later posted photos and video of the visit on social media. "Amid four public meetings spanning across West Bengal on a hectic Sunday, I savoured some delicious spicy puffed rice, Jhalmuri in Jhargram," he said in posts on X.

The stop quickly went viral online. PM Modi's visit to the jhalmuri shop clocked 100 million views within 24 hours on his Instagram account and nearly 90 million views on Facebook.

The Prime Minister, who was accompanied by security personnel, also paid the shopkeeper for the snack. When the man refused to take the money, Modi insisted that he accept it.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday alleged that the stop was "just a ‘drama’". "How come cameras were present when he made the unscheduled stop? The entire episode was scripted," she said at a rally in Murarai in Birbhum district.

The viral moment also triggered a wave of online chatter. 

One social media user wrote: "Since #PMModi has popularised it, #Jhalmuri now has the potential to become THE thing that leaders all over the world ask for when they visit us, or even when they don't! It should be making it's way to prominent positions in the menus of fancy restaurants."

Sameer, a surgeon, shared a Google search history, which showed jahmuri highest searched since 2004. "Search for Jhalmuri since 2000 till date... see the spike  after PM @narendramodi ji visited a Jhalmuri shop  yesterday😂 I have always said: Modiji is not a trendsetter, he is THE TREND."