Flutter Over PM Modi, Mamata Banerjee's Tweet Exchange

Kolkata: A tweet exchange between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is causing a flutter in political circles, certainly in West Bengal were elections are now less than three months away.  

At 5:20 pm Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted:

Received very touching New Year greetings from @MamataOfficial ji & that too in Gujarati! I thank Mamata Didi & wish her a great 2016.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 20, 2016

Almost two-and-a-half hours later came Mamata Banerjee's response:

Glad you liked the New Year greetings I sent you in Gujarati. Thanks too @narendramodi ji for the greetings you sent me in Bengali

— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) January 20, 2016

While the tweet exchange may be nothing but New Year courtesies, the opposition is agog over the political whodunit-first -- who greeted whom first? 'Pehele aap (you first)', both seem to say.

Did the Prime Minister send first send a New Year greeting to Mamata Banerjee in Bengali? To which she responded in Gujarati? Or was it the other way round?

While the tweets are public, the vernacular greetings are not, nor are the dates.

At a time when there is much talk about the CPM and the Congress joining hands for the upcoming Assembly elections, nothing is impossible in the season of alliances.