The Gujarat University claimed that, Prime Minister Narendra Modi "slightly changed" his name in his MA admission form. The clarification came amid claims by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that, the degrees and marksheets of the PM had "glaring discrepancies".

From "Narendrakumar Damodardas Modi," in MA Part I, the university said that, Modi has changed his name to "Narendra Damodardas Modi" in MA Part II, but everything is "genuine".

Mahesh Patel, Gujarat University’s VC said, “Since he (Modi) had taken admission in MA Part I in 1981 on the basis of his DU degree, he used the name Narendrakumar Damodardas Modi. But when filling MA Part II form, he dropped 'kumar' and wrote Narendra Damodardas Modi in the form.”

“So his degree was issued on the basis of his name in MA Part II. Everything is genuine. Since there was no computerized system and everything was to be done manually, a candidate could charge his name slightly. Now that we have computerized system in place, so whatever the name of the candidate filled in admission form carries on in the second part as well,” he said.

237 out of 400 in MA Part I and 262 out of 400 in MA Part II, Modi scored marks in his PG, totaling it to 499 out of 800 or 62.3%.

As an external candidate for Political Science course, Modi took admission in GU in 1981 and passed the course with first class in 1983.

In response to the AAP’s allegations questioning Modi’s degree from Delhi university, BJP released copies of PM’s BA and MA degrees. Referring to those, AAP said that, those documents were “forged” and had “glaring discrepancies” in them.

AAP leader Ashutosh claimed that, Modi's name did not match in the BA mark sheet and that of the MA degree, adding that, there were even discrepancies in the year of passing.

By Phani Ch