Chennai: Playing a "generous host," AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa treated Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to a "princely 45-course meal" on Monday at her Poes Garden residence here, amid speculation that the two parties are firming up an alliance for the next Lok Sabha polls.
Jayalithaa, who snapped her party's ties with the saffron brigade after the 2004 poll debacle in which the DMK-Congress alliance swept the Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu, served the meal to Modi to give him the taste of a 'Pongal' (harvest festival) feast, ostensibly to celebrate his victory in the recent Gujarat assembly elections.
Playing down the political significance of the meeting, the BJP, for its part, said the AIADMK leader served an 'extraordinary lunch' during which she congratulated Modi for his 'thumping' victory.
Former Union Minister and BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad, who accompanied Modi for the lunch, said that during the two-hour long meeting "Jayalalithaa appreciated the thumping victory of Modi and congratulated him."
"We also discussed a whole range of contemporary issues," he said but declined to elaborate.
Praising Jayalalithaa as a "very generous host," Prasad said "we had a friendly lunch and 45 items were served. It was a friendly meeting and an extraordinary lunch."
Asked whether the meeting took the AIADMK and the BJP a step towards forming an alliance, he said "no comments."
Earlier, Modi, who stuck to the schedule and arrived on time in a crisp white kurta, was welcomed by Jayalalithaa with a shawl at the entrance.
