New Delhi: Taking the staff and MPs lunching there by surprise, Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked into the first-floor Parliament House canteen around 1.15 pm on Monday with no fanfare and sat down at a table with a few other MPs, including two from Gujarat.

Canteen supervisor B.L. Purohit rushed to the table and asked: “Sir, what do you want to have? Anything special?” Mr Modi had a question too: “What is special, or most-liked food in your canteen?” He then asked for soup and a thali.

“The Prime Minister was first served soup, followed by the traditional thali which most MPs enjoy every day. (It has) rice, dal, palak sabzi, rajma, salad and raita. The Prime Minister didn’t ask for anything special,” Mr Purohit told this newspaper.

Mr Modi was given a bill for Rs 29, which he paid himself. He is possibly the first sitting Prime Minister to eat lunch in the canteen, though Rajiv Gandhi and I.K. Gujral had eaten there, though not while in office.