New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for tea on Friday. The meeting lasted an hour, during which the two discussed infrastructure development, a special package for Haryana and the thorny issue of water sharing with Punjab.
Sources close to Mr Hooda said the Prime Minister had sent the tea invitation to Mr Hooda on Thursday. The gesture, they said, amounted to extending an olive branch to the miffed Chief Minister, who had declared two days ago that that he would not share stage with the PM.
Today's meeting was a clear indication of some quick manoeuvring by the Prime Minister in view of the coming Haryana polls and the criticism aimed at the BJP over the public heckling of Congress chief ministers. The photograph of the two sitting together was tweeted by the Prime Minister's Office.
The Congress is making a big issue of Hooda's heckling in the poll-bound state. Mr Hooda has linked the matter to local pride. That rings a bell for the Jats, for whom community pride is extremely important. And the Jat vote is crucial for any party.
Mr Hooda has also raised the tricky issue of water sharing from the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal. Punjab being ruled by NDA ally Akali Dal, he has put the onus of resolving the issue on the PM. Whatever the outcome, the water-sharing issue will now be a poll-plank for the Congress.
But with the heckling issue becoming an embarrassment for the BJP - even ally Punjab chief minister has joined the chorus deploring it - the government tried to reach out to the Congress today. Home Minister Rajnath Singh struck a conciliatory note and urged the Congress to reconsider its "boycott" of PM's functions.