A Tea Meeting Attended By PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi greeted each other warmly at an unofficial tea meeting in Parliament complex after the Lok Sabha was adjourned on Friday, one sitting ahead of the scheduled end of the Budget session.

The current session of the Parliament was scheduled to end on August 12 but Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House sine die (for an indefinite period). The Rajya Sabha too was adjourned.

Traditionally, after both Houses are adjourned sine die, the Lok Sabha Speaker invites the floor leaders of all political parties for a customary tea meeting.

The people present at the meeting told NDTV that the leaders greeted each other with a namaste and smiled for the cameras.

The Prime Minister was seated on a sofa with Speaker Om Birla next to him. Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, was on a chair to the right of PM Modi.

Ministers Kiren Rijiju, Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, Chirag Paswan, Piyush Goyal along with opposition MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Kanimozhi were seated in the same row as Mr Gandhi.

Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh were seated across the Leader of Opposition.

In a relaxed atmosphere, Rahul Gandhi inquired about the situation in Ukraine from Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. In response, Mr Singh assured him that India is closely monitoring the developments in the region.

A server was seen entering the scene with a tea tray as the leaders spoke among themselves.

Notably, a few weeks ago the leaders, PM Modi and Rahul Gandhi, had exchanged sharp words while speaking in the Lok Sabha. The picture of the leaders sitting across each other was in sharp contrast to the acrimonious election campaign and the ongoing bitter battle between the two rival parties.