In a political wedlock of some significance, Chief Minister Narendra Modi would be sharing a Pongal lunch with former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa at her Poes Garden residence in Chennai on January 14. The AIADMK chief had made a call to Modi on December 23 after his victory and on being told that Modi would be in Chennai on January 14 to take part in 37th annual day celebrations of newspaper Tughlaq, run by Cho Ramaswamy, Jayalalithaa extended the invitation, informed sources in the CMO. The Tamil Nadu leader was one of the first to congratulate Modi, and their association goes back to 2002 when Jayalalithaa had flown down to Ahmedabad to be part of the Gujarat CM’s swearing in at the Sardar Patel stadium. Though it is being termed as a courtesy call, the meeting could turn out to be a harbinger of some political changes on the national scene as NDA prepares its bid for the 2009 elections. Modi is being seen as a likely candidate to fill the void left by Pramod Mahajan, and his Chennai jaunt could be one of the first steps to acquire national acceptance, said party sources.
