Modi meets Jaya: Revival of ties on cards?
Chennai, Jan 14: In what could be perceived as revival of ties between the two parties, BJP's posterboy and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today had a luncheon meeting with AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa. Party sources said both the leaders discussed the present political situation and shared issues of common perspective.
The hour-long meeting at the Poes Garden residence between the two leaders, in which former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and BJP Central Observer for Tamil Nadu also participated, is seen in political circles as the beginning of realignment of political forces ahead of the Lok Sabha polls next year.
Buoyed by the success in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, where the votebank of Congress had severely dented, and the Left parties' threat of withdrawing support to the Congress-led UPA government over the Indo-US Nuke Deal and its talks of a third front at the national level, the BJP foresees a mid-term polls to the Lok Sabha and has already entered into the poll-mode.
As a first step towards strengthening the NDA in the backdrop of the current political situation, the BJP has extended an olive branch to Ms Jayalalitha during the ''Pongal'' lunch hosted by her to Mr Modi and Mr Prasad.
The fact that both the parties share a common view on terrorism, Ram Sethu and the LTTE and Ms Jayalalithaa's glowing tributes to Mr Modi's victory in the Gujarat Polls, were enough indications for the BJP to bury the hatchet of 1998 and go in for a reunion with the AIADMK.
UNI