New Delhi: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded the special category status for his state. Accompanied by all 24 MPs belonging to his party, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president met Narendra Modi for the first time today after the regime change at the Centre.
Ahead of his meeting, the Odisha CM 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.
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.
Bureau Report
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