BHUBANESWAR: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi around 4.30pm in New Delhi on Thursday, official sources said.
Though officials said during the “courtesy visit,” the CM may raise the state’s pending issues with the Centre, speculation is rife about possible political discussions between them.
Naveen would meet the PM two days after Bihar CM Nitish Kumar came calling to his house in Bhubaneswar in his bid to bring opposition parties together and amid exit polls giving an edge to Congress in Karnataka.
“It’s purely a courtesy call. The CMs keep on meeting the PM. There is no specific agenda,” a government official familiar with the development said.
After Nitish and Naveen met over lunch at Naveen Niwas, the Odisha CM’s residence in Bhubaneswar, the Odisha CM had emphatically said there was no discussion of any alliance when the two old friends met. The JD(U), however, had tweeted that being a frontrunner of opposition unity, Nitish had met Naveen and is trying to unite the opposition without harbouring any personal ambition.”
Naveen, who left for Delhi on a four-day visit on Wednesday evening, has a number of other official engagements before he returns to Bhubaneswar on May 13.
