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Naveen Patnaik is asked about his stand on presidential election. He responds
Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s BJD has 112 state legislators and 21 members in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha,
NEW DELHI: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday said there had not been any discussion on the presidential election and neither the opposition nor the Bharatiya Janata Party has approached him in this context.
“There is still lots of time,” Patnaik told reporters in Delhi at Parliament House on the presidential election expected to be held in July. Patnaik’s BJD has 112 legislators and 21 members of parliament.
There was speculation that Patnaik may meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his three-day trip to Delhi beginning Monday and that the BJP might seek the Biju Janata Dal’s support for its candidate. Patnaik said he only came to Parliament to meet BJD MPs and to follow up on various programmes and welfare schemes for Odisha, underlining that he is not scheduled to meet PM Modi or union home minister Amit Shah.
Patnaik last visited Delhi in September 2021 to attend a meeting of chief ministers of Maoist-hit states convened by Amit Shah.
Asked if there should be a consensus between the government and opposition this time, Patnaik, a five-time chief minister, said, “I have neither thought anything about it nor do I have any proposal so far.”
He also clarified that he is not in Delhi to meet any opposition leader. Asked if his party will be part of any opposition coalition to take on the BJP, Patnaik said, “…We have not looked into that yet.”
In 2017, Patnaik’s BJD supported the BJP-led national coalition’s candidate Ram Nath Kovind over the Opposition’s Meira Kumar after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to the Odisha chief minister.
The BJD, which is considered to be friendly toward the BJP in Parliament, has kept a distance from a coalition of opposition parties that want to ally as a combined front against the BJP.
On West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s letter on Sunday to her counterparts in non-BJP ruled states, Patnaik asserted he has not seen the letter.
