Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday rejected the possibility of an Opposition front to take on the BJP and said his BJD would go solo in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Patnaik made the remarks after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi.
Patnaik, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Thursday, said his party’s policy of contesting elections alone would continue.
“There is no possibility of a ‘third front’ as far as I am concerned. Not now,” Patnaik told reporters after meeting Modi. “BJD will fight the 2024 elections on its own. That has been always been the policy of BJD.”
On his meeting with PM Modi, Patnaik said they discussed issues related to Odisha’s demand, including an international airport in Puri.
Patnaik’s remark comes a day after he met his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar, who has been meeting a host of leaders to unite the Opposition ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to take on the BJP-led NDA.
Both the leaders held a meeting at ‘Naveen Niwas’ in Bhubaneshwar. “Ours is a known friendship and we were colleagues many years ago. No discussion was held on any alliances today,” Patnaik had said after the meeting.
While Patnaik’s BJD is known to maintain equal distance from both the NDA and UPA, it has often supported the BJP on various issues and bills in Parliament.
In March, Patnaik also held a meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee when the TMC supremo visited Odisha.
After their meeting, the Odisha CM said, “We resolved to make the federal structure of the country permanent and strong. There was no other political discussion.”
