On Tuesday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had a meeting with his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar. This meeting sparked speculation that Kumar, a stalwart of the Janata Dal (United) was trying to join forces with Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in order to form an alliance of non-BJP parties.
At the lunch meeting held at Naveen Niwas, Naveen asserted that no discussion on forming any alliances took place. Nitish also refrained from making any direct remarks regarding whether they talked about politics.
However, after the meeting, JD(U), tweeted, “As the frontrunner of the opposition unity, CM Nitish Kumar rushed to Odisha to meet CM Naveen Patnaik. He is trying to unite the opposition parties without nursing any political ambition.”
On May 11, Bihar Chief Minister is set to travel to Mumbai in order to converse with ex-Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar.
Naveen and Nitish both spoke of their long-standing friendship, with Naveen emphasizing his stance of being impartial between the BJP and Congress stating, “Ours is an old friendship. We have also been colleagues, for many years ago. No discussions were held about any alliances today.”
Additionally, Nitish mentioned, “Don’t speculate over political issues. Our relationship is so deep, there is no need to think about politics. Our mutual understanding is very good, don’t compare it with others.”
Accompanying Nitish was Rajiv Ranjan, the party head, better known as Lalan Singh, and Sanjay Kumar Jha, a member of the cabinet.
While announcing on Monday that he will meet Nitish Kumar in Mumbai, National Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar partially responded to the query and said, “Our outlook is that an alternative (to the BJP government) is needed in the country. Those who wish to contribute to it, be it Nitish or Mamata, in my view we all need to work together for the same.”
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