Washington: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is unlikely to address a joint session of the US Congress when he will visit to Washington to meet President Barack Obama at the White House in late September mainly because of the general elections in November.
Indeed, plans are on to oragnise a lunch with over 50 US Senators who play a critical role in decision making in the American system. US India Political Action Committee (USINPAC), which is a broad-based group of Indian Americans, is driving this initiative.
More than 80 members of the House of Representatives and several top Senators wrote letter to the Congressional leadership both the Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, and the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, to invite Modi to address a joint session of the US Congress.
However, this is unlikely to happen now mainly because of the elections in November and urgency on the part of the lawmakers to go back to their constituencies for campaigning.
As a result, both the House of Representatives and the Senate are likely to be not in session when Modi visits Washington.
While there has been no official word on Modi's visit to the US, it is expected to be in the last week of September.
As of now Congress is expected to be in recess, as Members of the House of Representatives would be busy campaigning for the November general elections.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued on Sunday, the Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) said that Modi will address hundreds of Indian Americans at the famous Madison Square Garden in New York on September 28. The event has been named 'Pradhan Mantri Narendra Modi Abhinandan Samaroh'.
According to OFBJP, Modi is hugely popular among the Indian Americans. Vijay Jolly, BJP Global Convener of Overseas Affairs, along with Chandrakant Patel, OFBJP-USA president, according to the statement, would tour several cities across the country to mobilise Indian American community leaders and the Indian diaspora for this event.
