"Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will be meeting Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren at his residence in Ranchi on Wednesday. The meeting is scheduled at 4.45 pm," the JD(U) source said here.

Ruling JMM spokesperson Vinod Kumar Pandey confirmed the development and said Kumar and Soren are likely to discuss various matters, including political issues. Both leaders are likely to address a press conference as well, he added. Kumar on Tuesday called on Patnaik at his residence in Bhubaneswar and held a discussion with him for around an hour but neither spoke about it later.

The JD(U) supremo, who is trying to unite anti-BJP politicians, has so far met leaders of various parties including his West Bengal counterpart and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal with the aim to form an opposition front in view of the coming Lok Sabha polls.

Kumar, with his pitch for a “united opposition” which, he believes, can take on and defeat the BJP in next year's Lok Sabha polls, is likely to visit Mumbai on Thursday and is likely to call on Maharashtra stalwarts Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray. He joined the'Mahagathbandhan' which includes RJD, Congress, CPI(ML) Liberation, CPI and CPI (M) after quitting the NDA for the second time in August 2022.