Nitish Kumar meets Naveen Patnaik, to hold talks with Hemant Soren, Sharad Pawar next

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar met his Odisha counterpart and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday as part of his efforts to forge an alliance of opposition parties ahead of the 2024 general election, with plans to hold a meeting of opposition leaders after the Karnataka assembly election results in the national capital.

In his visit to Bhubaneswar Kumar was accompanied by the JDU's national president Lalan Singh and Bihar minister Sanjay Jha to his trip to Odisha.

The meeting between Kumar and Patnaik lasted for an hour and a half. Patnaik downplayed the political buzz around the meeting, saying he and Kumar are "old friends and colleagues" who worked together in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government and that no discussions were held on a possible alliance.


After Mamata Banerjee, Kumar is the second opposition leader to reach out to Patnaik.

After meeting Patnaik, Kumar's next stop will be Ranchi on Wednesday. He will meet Jharkhand CM and JMM leader Hemant Soren.

On Thursday, Kumar will travel to Mumbai to meet NCP leader Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (Uddhav) faction leader Uddhav Thackeray.