Modi has 'lunch pe charcha' with Jaya at Poes Garden home

In his first visit to Chennai since becoming prime minister, Narendra Modi was given a rapturous welcome and hosted for lunch by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.

Look who’s lunching together! Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had Prime Minister Narendra Modi over for lunch on Friday after the launch of the National Handloom Day celebrations at the University of Madras.

The two shared a meal at the Tamil Nadu CM’s Poes Garden residence in Chennai. During the discussions, which lasted for around 50 minutes, Jayalalithaa is understood to have taken up issues concerning Tamil Nadu, including the inter-state river disputes with Karnataka and Kerala, and presented a memorandum to the prime minister.

Earlier in the day, Jayalalithaa broke protocol and welcomed Modi at the Chennai airport.

It is the PM’s first visit to Chennai since he took office, not counting a brief stopover last June when he met Jayalalithaa at the airport for 15 minutes.

Modi’s meeting with Jayalalithaa on Friday is being seen as significant given the National Democratic Alliance’s push to garner support for its key economic reforms bills in Parliament.

The ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has 37 members in the Lok Sabha and 11 in the Upper House.

Modi and Jayalalithaa share cordial ties. In fact, after Jayalalithaa was acquitted by the Karnataka high court in the disproportionate assets case, the PM had called to congratulate her.

Modi, as Gujarat chief minister in 2011, had attended the swearing-in ceremony of Jayalalithaa when her party captured power in the elections.

The AIADMK supremo reciprocated when she attended his swearing-in ceremony as Gujarat chief minister after winning the 2012 assembly polls.

Modi received a rapturous welcome in Chennai, with posters put up all along the route from the airport into the city.