Bengaluru: Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda’s surprise visit to Gujarat and his unscheduled visit to the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel “Statue of Unity” has raised several eyebrows. What has added to this surprise, is a word of praise to Gowda by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.

In a tweet, Modi said, “Happy to see our former PM Shri@H_D_Devegowda Ji visit the Statue of Unity.”

Prime Minister’s tweet was liked by 26,000 of his followers and was retweeted by 2.9k followers.

Gowda, who is considered to be a master political strategist, recently snapped ties with the Congress party unit of the state after the collapse of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government led by his son HD Kumaraswamy. “It was a surprise visit. Gowda met several close associates of PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Something is brewing,” said a senior JDS leader.

According to sources, the Shah-Modi duo does not like the functioning style of CM BS Yediyurappa. “Everything is confusing,” the source added.