New Delhi | Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday paid homage to socialist icon Ram Manohar Lohia on his birth anniversary, hailing him as a towering intellectual and a prolific thinker who contributed immensely to India's freedom struggle.

Modi tweeted, "He was a towering intellectual and prolific thinker who contributed immensely to India's freedom struggle and later as a dedicated leader as well as MP. We are working hard to fulfil his vision for a strong India." Born in 1910, Lohia enriched socialist politics with his ideas rooted in grassroots and mass politics and was also instrumental in spearheading an alliance of opposition parties to a position to challenge the then-dominant Congress party.

He died in 1967 and has been an inspiration for a host of leaders and different political parties