After talks of a growing friendship between him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, especially during last weeks flagging off of the Vande Bharat express train from Puri, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaiks skipping of the NITI Aayog meeting has raised eyebrows.
Though he was all set to fly to Delhi to attend the meeting, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the eighth Governing Council, said the Centre and the States would have to work as ‘Team India’ to realize the objective of a ‘Viksit Bharat (Developed India)’ in 2047.
Mr Patnail joined several Chief Ministers who kept away from the event, including Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Punjabs Bhagwat Mann, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Telangana CM K Chandra Sekhar Rao, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot and Kerala CM Pinarai Vijayan.
Mr Patnaik had earlier denied any plans of his party joining the Opposition front ahead of the 2024 polls, but he seemed to have changed his mind at the last minute, to apparently stay back and oversee the preparation of his fourth anniversary in his 5th term as CM.
Mr Patnaik was full of praise for PM Modi for his vision over the bullet train project and also said that the Odisha government would take all the suggestions made by the PM to make the new airport at Puri a ‘world-class sea-side airport.’
He added that his party, the BJD would also attend the inauguration of the new Parliament building on Sunday amid boycott calls by opposition parties.
‘The President of India is the head of the Indian state. The Parliament represents the 1.4 billion people of India. Both the institutions are symbols of Indian democracy and draw their authority from the Constitution of India. The office of the President of India is beyond politics. The issue can be debated later,’ the BJD said amid the boycott.
The BJDs stance was consistent with its support to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, as well as the scrapping of Article 370.
Political observers said the decision to skip the meeting was typical of the Odisha CM hedging his political bets, with an eye on the 2024 polls.