Modi, Patnaik meet Jayalalithaa: Courtesy call or political realignment?

New Delhi: The Centre today hosted an internal security meeting in New Delhi where it invited chief ministers of all the states to discuss the strengthening of anti-terror capabilities and intelligence, the key issue being setting up of a National Counter Terror Centre (NCTC). But the chief ministers turned up all guns blazing against the Central government.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik trooped in to meet Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Mr Patnaik refused to divulge what transpired at the meeting, merely saying it was a courtesy call as Jayalalithaa is an "old family friend of my father." Mr Modi and Ms Jayalalithaa too followed the suit and did not speak to the media.

But this meeting is being seen by many as something more than just a photo-op, as the emerging contours of a political realignment.

For several weeks now, this powerful group has been targeting the Centre for what they call a violation of federal rights. First, over the Lokayukta in the Lokpal Bill, and now over the NCTC.

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UPA ally and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also been a part of this group even though she skipped today's meeting of the chief ministers.

Even before the Congress' setback in last month's elections, Ms Banerjee has been needling the government and reaching out to Bihar's Nitish Kumar and Odisha's Naveen Patnaik.

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And now, the meeting of Mr Patnaik and Mr Modi with Ms Jayalalithaa is being seen with interest. But there are many ifs and buts like Mr Modi's acceptability ahead of the 2014 elections.

The key agenda of the meeting today was a joint strategy against the Centre's anti-terror body and the upcoming presidential polls with Jayalalithaa emerging as a rallying force against the Centre.

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The Congress, meanwhile, dismissed the formation of a Fourth Front as the "evergreen mirage of Indian politics".

"If you are referring to the Fourth Front, which is a subject of quite a few analysis, I want to respectfully say that it is an evergreen mirage of Indian politics", party spokesman Manish Tewari told reporters today.

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Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, V Narayanasamy, told NDTV that there's nothing wrong in the chief ministers meeting each other.

"I don't see any kind of new political alignment. Because the chief ministers of non-Congress states meeting together is not new to our Indian politics," he said.

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The BJP, meanwhile, blamed the governance deficit in the Centre. "Leave aside Narendra Modi or any other BJP chief minister. Jayalalithaa, Mamata Banerjee, Naveen Patnaik are having a deep sense of grievance and anguish that their rights are being nipped away. In politics, difference would be there but how you manage if equally important," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told NDTV.

Publicly, the Congress is dismissive about today's meeting but behind the scenes, the party has reasons to worry. This group of anti-Congress chief ministers not only creates a pressure group against the UPA government, but also makes it difficult to push through legislations in Parliament.