The need of the hour is to conduct an extensive inquiry into the pedestrian bridge collapse in Gujarat and implement the lessons from the probe, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday as he visited the site of the tragedy in Morbi town.

Modi met some of the survivors and family members of the victims, and later chaired a “high-level meeting” to review the situation.

The death toll has touched 135 with an injured person dying on Tuesday, G.T. Pandya, a senior official, said in Morbi. One person was still missing according to the authorities’ estimate, he said.

A release by the Press Information Bureau, the central government’s publicity arm, said the Prime Minister stressed at Tuesday’s review meeting that “the need of the hour is to conduct a detailed and extensive inquiry which will identify all aspects relating to this mishap”.

The release added that the Prime Minister had directed that “learnings from the inquiry must be implemented at the earliest”.

Modi’s comments were in sharp contrast with the mocking tone he had adopted and the reference to the hand of God he had made soon after an under-construction flyover collapsed in Calcutta and killed 21 people in 2016 in the run-up to the Assembly polls. The Prime Minister had then said the crash was a message from God to the people to save Bengal (from the Mamata Banerjee government) or the state would be destroyed like the bridge.

Modi’s visit to Morbi, two days after the horrific bridge collapse, comes at a time the BJP is keen to limit any political damage in the run-up to the Assembly elections in Gujarat.

The disaster has brought into question the vaunted “Gujarat model” of development in Modi’s home state, which the BJP has ruled at a stretch since the mid-1990s.

That Modi was accompanied by state BJP chief C.R. Paatil, in addition to chief minister Bhupendra Patel and state home minister Harsh Sanghvi, served to highlight the political connotations of the visit. Paatil is believed to be Modi’s point man for the management of the Gujarat polls.

“Went to Morbi, which witnessed the horrific bridge mishap. Met the bereaved families and extended condolences,” Modi tweeted.

“I visited the site of the tragedy and went to the hospital where the injured are recovering. Also met those involved in rescue ops and chaired a review meeting.”

Party leaders said that Modi’s “touching gesture” of meeting the survivors in hospital and the families of the dead would help douse the popular anger.

Modi was on a three-day visit to Gujarat when the bridge collapsed. He has been campaigning extensively for the Gujarat elections, often using official events to deliver election-style speeches.

On Tuesday, the Prime Minister arrived at Morbi after completing his scheduled events of laying foundation stones and inaugurating development projects in Gujarat’s tribal region of Jambughoda.

Modi had stayed busy with his scheduled events in Gujarat on Monday too, the day after the bridge tragedy, asserting that despite a “pain-filled” heart he was following the “path of duty”.

Addressing a crowd in Jambughoda on Tuesday, Modi accused previous governments of neglecting tribal communities and claimed his administration had brought in development across the board.

The BJP has pulled out the stops to court tribal voters, traditional supporters of the Congress. It was partly with Gujarat’s tribal voters in mind that the party had picked Droupadi Murmu, an Odisha-born tribal, for the post of the country’s President, party managers said.

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping were the latest to send condolences for the loss of lives, many of whom were children.

(Additional reporting by Reuters and PTI)