Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have back-pedalled on the claim of being a non-biological godsend, but not on his divine legacy. On Thursday, he reiterated that he was the adopted son of Ma Ganga.

“It was Mother Ganga’s blessings that gave me the opportunity to serve Uttarakhand for decades. I believe it was because of her blessings that I reached Kashi (Varanasi) and am now serving as its MP,” Modi told a public meeting in Harshil, Uttarkashi.

“This was the reason that I had said in Kashi that Ma Ganga had called me. I felt a few months ago as though Ma Ganga has adopted me now.”

Modi had spoken about being “called by Ma Ganga” while contesting the general election from Varanasi for the first time in 2014. Two years later, he claimed at a public meeting in his constituency that Ma Ganga had “adopted” him.

During last summer’s general election, Modi seemed to aim even higher, portraying himself as a non-biological being, sent by God.

“When my mother was alive, I used to believe that I was born biologically. After she passed away, upon reflecting on all my experiences, I was convinced that God had sent me,” he had said.

However, he seemed to backtrack in January this year, saying during a podcast interview that he was not above making mistakes because he was “human and not God”.

“It’s Ma Ganga’s love for her child that has brought me to Mukhba, her maike (parental village),” he said on Thursday.

Mukhba in Harshil is the mythological residence of Himavat and Menavati, the parents of Goddess Ganga. The Ganga’s idol is brought to a small temple in the village from the Gangotri temple, 9km away, in winter.

Modi worshipped at the temple and attended a cultural event organised by the state government with the help of local people.

He cited a further divine connection, claiming that Baba Kedar (Shiva) had put “an emotion in me and some words in my mouth a few years ago and I had uttered suddenly that this decade belongs to Uttarakhand”.

“They were my words, my expressions but the power had come from Baba Kedarnath himself. I can see that those emotions and words are turning into reality. New avenues are opening up here,” he said.

He stressed that his Char Dham road project linking the Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri shrines in Uttarakhand was nearing completion, heralding great tourism potential.

Modi expressed grief at the deaths of eight road workers in an avalanche near the Badrinath shrine. The 54 labourers working on the Char Dham project site there had not been evacuated despite alerts about heavy snow and a possible avalanche – a lapse that is being investigated.

“About 18 lakh pilgrims used to visit Char Dham in a year before 2014. This number has gone up to 50 lakh now,” Modi said.

He took a jab at the Congress saying its government had evacuated two border villages (Nilong and Jadong) “when China attacked India in 1962” but did nothing to resettle the residents there – an omission he said his government was trying to rectify.

“They (the Congress) forget but I can’t forget. I have started the process to re-establish the villages. We are moving forward to develop (the two sites) as great tourist destinations,” he said.

However, some local people said these were “migration villages” — settlements whose residents shift to lower areas in winter — and that some people lived there in summer.