Naveen Patnaik to not be part of joint opposition, at least “not now”
Nitish Kumar (JD(U)) and Tejaswi Yadav (RJD), the chief minister and deputy chief minister of Bihar, recently began parleys with non-BJP leaders across the country to stitch up a joint opposition to the BJP-led NDA for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
They met Mamata Banerjee of AITC, Akhilesh Yadav of SP and Naveen Patnaik of BJP, all leaders of their parties and having a strong regional base (though SP is now much smaller than the other two). Congress is already part of the ruling coalition in Bihar.
While Mamata and Akhilesh have given positive signals to Nitish and Tejaswi, BJD’s Naveen Patnaik, ruling Odisha for many years now, came out today with a statement that he will keep equal distance from both the Congress and the BJP, a day after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday.
“There is no possibility of a Third Front as far as I am concerned. Not now,” he said. The “not now” may hold significance, though. But, for now, that is one less in the opposition camp.
Another news is from Karnataka. JD(S) is in a triangular fight with the Congress and the BJP in the state election, whose results are coming out tomorrow, and what HD Deve Gowda and his son, HD Kumaraswamy plan, tomorrow as well as for the 2024 Lok Sabha election, will depend the results.
Notably, HD Deve Gowda recently declared that his party would be part of any Left Front-led efforts at forming a coalition against the NDA in the next Lok Sabha election. The JD(S)’s backing of three candidates each from the CPI(M) and the Republican Party of India (Prakash Ambedkar faction) in the just-concluded assembly elections is also testimony to where its natural coalition inclinations lie.
