Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who met Prime Minister Narendra
Modi seeking special category status for his state, on Monday ruled out
joining the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Speaking to reporters after his meeting with the Prime Minister, BJD
chief said, “We just met the PM, brought out a number of demands for
Odisha, especially special status and mineral royalty. The PM was quite
positive to our demands. We didn’t discuss joining NDA.”
Patnaik was accompanied by all 24 MPs belonging to his party when he met
Modi for the first time today after the regime change at the Centre.
Ahead of his meeting, the Odisha CM had told reporters that he has no
intention to join the BJP-led NDA government headed by Narendra Modi.
“There is no thought of BJD joining NDA,” Patnaik said.
“Yes, I will be discussing demand for special category status for Odisha
and issues like mineral royalty,” said the Odisha Chief Minister.
“Will be positive towards Central Govt, hope they will respond to the just demands of Odisha,” the BJD chief said.
The BJD won 20 of the 21 seats from Odisha in the Lok Sabha polls. It has another four members in the Rajya Sabha.
Modi, 63, was sworn in as the country's 15th Prime Minister on May 26,
and has, since then, been meeting chief ministers, governors and other
functionaries. Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa will be meeting
him tomorrow.
Patnaik, who was last month sworn in as the chief minister of Odisha
for the fourth consecutive term, has been exerting pressure on the
Centre to accede to his demand for including Odisha in the category of
special category states. In 2011, he had written a letter to the then
Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to press for the acceptance of his
demand.
At present, there are 11 states that enjoy the special status. They
include Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir,
Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand.
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