Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar, paid Naveen Patnaik, the chief minister of Odisha, a courtesy call on Tuesday. The two leaders declined to discuss opposition unity.

Nitish Kumar The leader of JDU

Kumar, the leader of the Janata Dal (United), is in charge of a seven-party coalition government in Bihar. He has been meeting with leaders from various opposition parties to try to create a “united opposition” alliance to fight the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

We have a long history of friendship and have worked together as colleagues. Today, no alliances were discussed,” Patnaik stated following the meeting in the state capital.

“My relationship with his (Patnaik’s) father, Biju Babu, and Naveen ji is very old,” Kumar stated. We were not able to meet because of the COVID-19 pandemic. No political conversations were held. We don’t need to talk politics because we have good relationships.

The leader of the JD (U) has held a number of meetings over the past few months in an effort to unite the opposition and regional parties on a common platform. Kumar recently met with the president of the Congress, Mallikarjun Kharge, senior party leader Rahul Gandhi, the national convener of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and his Delhi counterpart, Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Akhilesh Yadav, and Mamata Bannerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal and leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

Not long from now, Kumar is supposed to meet Public Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) pioneer Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai. He will likely also meet Hemant Soren, the chief minister of Jharkhand.

Patnaik shares a picture with Nitish Kumar

On Twitter, Patnaik posted pictures of his meeting with Kumar and said, I was pleased to meet Nitish Kumar, chief minister of Bihar, in Bhubaneswar. Odisha imparts a unique cling to Bihar and individuals in the adjoining state. I hope he enjoyed and got a lot out of his time in Odisha.

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The chief minister of Odisha said that the state government will give the Bihar government 1.5 acres of land in Puri “free of charge” to build facilities for tourists who come to the coastal city to pray to Lord Jagannath.

In spring, Mamata Banerjee approached Patnaik during her three-day Odisha visit. Even though Banerjee referred to the meeting as a “courtesy call,” the leader of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) stated that there was no “political discussion” at the event.