Bhubaneswar: Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) Chief Nitish Kumar, who is touring opposition-ruled states to unite the parties ahead of 2024 general elections, is set to meet his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik on May 9. As a part of his effort to forge unity among non-BJP political parties, Nitish Kumar will visit Odisha on May 9 and meet Naveen, who is also the president of Biju Janata Dal (BJD). The meeting may take place at noon in Bhubaneswar. While media reports described it as a significant move towards bringing unity among the opposition against the BJP ahead of the next elections, however, details about the meeting were not available.
It may be recalled that BJD has been maintaining distance from both BJP and Congress and has avoided moving either towards the NDA or evolving non-BJP alliance so far. It may be noted that in April this year, after meeting opposition leaders in Delhi, Nitish Kumar declared that he would travel across the country to unite opposition parties.
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Addressing a gathering to mark BR Ambedkar’s birth anniversary, the Bihar CM said, “I have been advocating for opposition unity after the formation of the Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar. I was lauded for leaving the NDA and I was waiting for the call for seven months and when Congress leaders called me, I went there and interacted with them.”
Furthermore, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, the Bihar CM has already met West Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress (TMC) president Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata and Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow and Left leaders Sitaram Yechury and D Raja.
In March, speculations were rife over the meeting between Naveen and Mamata in Bhubaneswar and the Trinamool chief leading an initiative to forge an alliance of regional parties against the BJP. However, Mamata called the meeting a “courtesy call” and Naveen said that there were no “political discussions” at the meeting, “We resolved to make the federal structure of the country permanent and strong. There was no other political discussion,” he said.
