PM Modi hosts tea party for NDA MPs

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday hosted a tea party for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Members of Parliament (MPs) at his official 7, Race Course Road (RCR) residence here.

The NDA lawmakers were given presentations on the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana and Jan Dhan Yojana during the tea party.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veterans Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, BJP president Amit Shah and Cabinet Ministers Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, M. Venkaiah Naidu, Dr Harsh Vardhan and Ram Vilas Paswan were among those present on the occasion, which marked the first interaction Prime Minister Modi had with the NDA MPs since his government took charge at the Centre in May this year.

"It was a successful get-together. Presentations were given by Nitin Gadkari and Arun Jaitley. Prime Minister Modi talked about cleanliness drive and a gamut of issues, and how MPs can play a major role in bringing change," BJP general secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudy told the media.

The tea party took place just days after the BJP's splendid performance in the assembly polls in Haryana and Maharashtra. It was also seen as an attempt by the BJP to reach out to ally Shiv Sena for the formation of the state government in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray was, however, not present at the tea party.

The BJP and Shiv Sena broke their 25-year old alliance ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly polls over seats sharing.

The BJP has emerged as the single-largest party in Maharashtra winning 122 of the 288 seats. The Shiv Sena finished second with 63 seats.

The BJP has, however, not yet revealed its cards despite Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) offering to extend it outside support to form the government in the state.