Amma hosts Modi, sets table for a new political course

By all accounts, it was a meal fit for the kings. Beginning with the traditional chakkara...

By all accounts, it was a meal fit for the kings. Beginning with the traditional chakkara sweet Pongal, with a good deal of Chettinad fare thrown in and ending with exotic fruits, the 8220;extraordinary8221; feast must have been a gastronomic delight even for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, replete with an electoral victory.

And, considering that it was the charming AIADMK Amma, dressed in a majenta silk saree, who was playing host in her elegant Poes Garden bungalow, even Modi couldn8217;t have asked for more. But the aperitif surely was the small talk about blossoming AIADMK-BJP alliance which whipped up appetite for the 45-course princely meal, specially prepared at Taj Coromandel.

8220;It was an extraordinary lunch. Jayalalithaa was a very generous host. We thank her from the bottom of our heart,8221; said BJP spokesperson RaviShankar Prasad, who accompanied Modi. Mobbed by mediapersons when he emerged from Jayalalithaa8217;s residence after the two-hour sumptuous lunch, Prasad stepped out to take questions, while Modi preferred to remain inside the car.

8220;We discussed a whole range of issues,8221; he said, adding that the AIADMK supremo had been 8220;kind enough to appreciate the thumping victory8221; of Modi and congratulate him. But significant was Prasad8217;s remarks later that the lunch had 8220;set the right ambience8221; for an alliance between the AIADMK and the BJP.

8220;There is a meeting of mind, of thoughts and a commonality on a whole range of issue from terrorism to Ram Setu and the LTTE,8221; he said. But what kind of alliance could be arrived between the two parties was something that had to be discussed by Jayalalithaa and the BJP8217;s national leaders, he said.

The AIADMK and the BJP had split up after their disastrous 2004 alliance when they drew nil for the Lok Sabha election. In the May 2006 Assembly election, Jayalalithaa ignored the BJP, preferring to team up with Vaiko8217;s MDMK and some smaller outfits.

Modi8217;s meeting with Jayalalithaa has buoyed the sagging spirits of the BJP in Tamil Nadu, which sees the luncheon as a crucial run-up to clinching a deal with the AIADMK.

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In an interaction with party workers, the first meeting of the day, Modi told them that the secret of his electoral success in Gujarat was the 27 mahila conferences he held in just 60 days for each of which one lakh women attended. During polls, the woman turn-out had gone up by three per cent and this was the clincher to his victory, Modi told BJP cadres during a meeting at Kamalalayam, the BJP headquarters here. After his lunch with Jayalalithaa, Modi visited the RSS office before taking part as the chief guest in the 38th anniversary function of Tuglak, the Tamil weekly owned by Cho Ramasamy. The event held in the Kamaraj Hall, owned by the Congress Trust, saw some heartburn among the TNCC leaders after some fringe groups staged protests. Some 500 members of the Anti-Fascist Front were taken into custody close to the Kamaraj Hall.

Arriving in the backdrop of hostile agitations by the Left parties and some minority groups, brandishing skulls, bones and nasty placards, Modi8217;s Chennai visit was far from uneventful. The tight security, traffic snarls and tedious frisking were hardly meant to lighten Modi8217;s mood.