Setback for Nitish as Naveen Patnaik says BJD to go solo in Lok Sabha polls 2024

Just two days after meeting Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday ruled out the possibility of a 'third front' and said the BJD will go solo in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Nitish Kumar has been meeting opposition leaders to form a grand alliance to take on the BJP in 2024. He met Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Both leaders met for more than an hour but later claimed that there was no discussion on politics or any alliance for the 2024 general election.

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When asked about his meeting with the Bihar CM and the possibility of a 'third front', Patnaik said: "No, not as far as I'm concerned, not now." He also suggested that the BJD will fight the upcoming elections alone. "That has always been the case". Patnaik is in Delhi till Friday but he said he had no plans of meeting any other leaders in the current trip. On his meeting with Kumar, the Odisha chief minister said it was a "courtesy call and went off well". 

Earlier today, Patnaik met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi. In the meeting that lasted around 20-25 minutes, Patnaik raised issues related to infrastructure development in the state, including the under-construction Sri Jagannath Airport, incomplete national highways and the opening of bank branches in Gram Panchayat which do not have the facility. 

(With inputs from PTI)