New Delhi (TIP)- In the first major blow to the Opposition’s attempts at forging a pan-India anti-BJP alliance, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday, May 11, said his party would go it alone in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “There is no question of a third front as far as I am concerned. Not now,” Patnaik told the media after having met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss development projects related to the state.
Patnaik, who has been serving as Odisha CM since 2000, making him the longest-serving CM of the state, said his party would not ally with the Opposition for General Election.Patnaik’s remarks came two days after he met his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar, who is currently on a mission to unite non-BJP parties for the 2024 elections, and on a day when Nitish met NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai.Nitish had earlier met Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren to advance an anti-BJP alliance having earlier met Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal.
JD(U) ex-president RCP Singh joins BJP
Former JD-U chief RCP Singh on Thursday joined the BJP and attacked his once political mentor and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, claiming he had allegedly been compromising in his pursuit for power. “Nitish used to say that he was against crime and corruption. Today, he has joined hands with those against whom he once struggled,” said Singh.
Pilot to form own party? Buzz grows amid his ‘padyatra’
Since he went public with accusations that Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government was going soft on alleged corruption during the tenure of former CM Vasundhara Raje, buzz has been growing around whether dissident Congress leader Sachin Pilot was contemplating forming his own party in Rajasthan.
Political circles are rife with talk that the former Deputy CM and a Gehlot bete noire in the Congress’ internal politics could well be testing waters with the five-day ‘padyatra’ (foot march) against “corruption”.
The 125-km ‘Jan Sangharsh Yatra’ from Ajmer to Jaipur is seen as an attempt to mount further pressure on the Congress leadership as it hopes to retain the state in the elections at the end of the year. A month ago, Pilot had defied a warning from the party to hold a daylong fast targeting Gehlot on “inaction” over alleged corruption during the Raje rule. “I am taking out this yatra to raise my voice, to hear your voice, and to become the voice of the people,” Pilot, who was sacked as the state Congress chief in 2020 when he led a revolt against the CM, said at the start of the march. Thousands of party workers followed him as the yatra set off.