Venkaiah, Himanta Meet Raghubar Das In Odisha Raj Bhawan Amid Buzz On His Return To Jharkhand Politics

Bhubaneswar: Former Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma arrived in Odisha capital on Friday morning.

Naidu is on two-day visit to Odisha. He arrived by train in Bhubaneswar around 10.15 am. The Assam CM landed at the airport here around 10 am on a day visit. They both then proceeded to Raj Bhawan and had separate meetings with Governor Raghubar Das.

“The former Vice President of India was given a warm welcome by the Governor at Raj Bhavan today on his arrival in Odisha. Both had an engaging discussion on various developmental issues for a better India,” the Odisha Governor X handle tweeted.

The X handle also shared pictures of the Governor’s meeting with both CMs of Assam and Odisha. “Discussion was held on various initiatives, and Assam CM was presented with the coffee table book of Odisha’s Raj Bhavan ‘Breaking the barrier, Reaching out to people’.”

These meetings before the Jharkhand elections assumed significance since Das is reportedly keen to return to active politics and contest from Jamshedpur East seat, which he represented five straight times as MLA till his defeat in the 2019 Assembly polls to Independent candidate and BJP rebel Saryu Roy. He was also in Jamshedpur for four days and had returned to Bhubaneswar on September 25, sources said.

The Assam CM is also BJP’s co-election in-charge of Jharkhand.

Also Read: Is Odisha Governor Raghubar Das Keen To Return To Jharkhand Politics?

Das  had earlier had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah to explore the possibility of contesting the assembly election and return to state politics.

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi also paid a courtesy visit to the former vice-president at Raj Bhavan.

Taking to his X handle, the CM said that he had discussions with Naidu on shared values and the progress of Odisha and the nation. “It was an honour to engage with such a distinguished leader, whose wisdom and contributions to the country are deeply respected. His insights and guidance continue to inspire efforts towards the betterment of Odisha and the nation,” he added.

Mentioning about his meeting with Himanta, Majhi wrote that the discussions focused on strengthening ties between Assam and Odisha and collaborative efforts for the development of both states.