Bhubaneswar: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's meeting with his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik over the formation of a possible anti-BJP alliance failed to bring positive outcome on Tuesday.
The two Chief Ministers, who went in a huddle at the meeting, which was viewed crucial by non-NDA political parties, however, said that no discussion was held on any alliances. "Ours is a known friendship and we were colleagues many years ago. The land in Puri is being given free of cost to the Bihar government to build a Bihar Bhawan there," the two CMs said after the meeting. The meeting between Kumar and Patnaik assumed political significance as the latter had held a discussion with West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee in March.
Speculations about Kumar's meeting with Patnaik, who heads the Biju Janata Dal, have been doing the rounds for quite some time. The Bihar CM, who snapped ties with the BJP last year, vowing to defeat it in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, has toured many places and met political leaders of various hues as part of his opposition unity drive.
Recently, he held talks with Banerjee and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav. Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav had in April met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi in the presence of Rahul Gandhi and pledged to take all opposition parties together for a united front against the BJP.
The JD(U) leader, also held meetings with NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury among others. Kumar has been maintaining that he had no prime ministerial ambitions but said he was looking forward to play a positive role in forging opposition unity against the ruling NDA at the Centre. Patnaik, one of the longest serving CMs of any state in the country, has tried to remain equidistant from the Congress and the BJP. (With Agency inputs)
