BHUBANESWAR: As several regional political parties are seeking a common ground before the 2024 general elections, the meeting between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik scheduled on Thursday here has assumed significance.
Mamata has already met Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav last Friday in Kolkata before her three-day visit to Odisha. Though the meeting between the two leaders was informal and private, sources maintained that broad contours of an anti-BJP front minus the Congress was discussed.
Sources in the BJD maintained that the regional outfit does not have any common ground with Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party except the fact that all three parties do not belong to any alliance. The BJD has never belonged to any anti-BJP or anti-Congress group and there is no possibility of the party getting into one before the 2024 elections.
The West Bengal Chief Minister, a devotee of Lord Jagannath, will offer prayers at the Srimandir on March 22. Her visit from March 21 is being billed as a private visit to Odisha. BJD sources also maintained that the West Bengal CM will meet Naveen, but no politics will be discussed. She will meet Naveen at Naveen Nivas in the morning of March 23 before leaving for Kolkata on the same day.