Patna, (Samajweekly) Continuing his bid to unite opposition parties, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is going to Bhubaneswar to meet his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday.
He will also go to Mumbai to meet leaders of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, including NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena-UBT chief and former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on May 11.
JD-U national President Lalan Singh said that Nitish Kumar has telephonic conversations with these three leaders and he is going there for the meeting.
“Nitish Kumar has telephonic conversations with Naveen Patnaik, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and former CM Uddhav Thackeray. The movement of opposition unity is speeding up now. CM Nitish Kumar will go to Odisha on May 9 and Maharashtra on May 11. He will give them invitations for the meeting of opposition parties leaders ahead of the Lok Sabha poll 2024,” Singh said.
Patnaik is known for his neutral politics in Odisha, trying to be equidistant from both the BJP and the Congress. However, in the last few years, the BJP is trying to make inroads in the coastal state and Nitish Kumar is looking to utilise this gap to draw Patnaik into the opposition ambit. If Patnaik joins the opposition, it would be a big achievement for Nitish Kumar.