Bhubaneswar, April 20: Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee today met her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik, and kept speculation over a national non-BJP front alive.

"It is a continuous process," she said when asked about the fate of her proposal for unified Opposition, for which the unity of regional non-BJP parties is crucial.

"We love all regional parties, and they must continue," she said after her 10-minute meeting with Naveen at the Odisha chief minister's residence.

Clad in her trademark white sari, Mamata, who presented Naveen a bouquet of white lilies, underscored the need for strengthening the country's federal structure.

"The federal structure must be strengthened in tune with the Constitution," she said.

She kept up with her tirade against the BJP, reiterating her charge that it was a divisive political force.

"They purchase ministers and MLAs. They divide Hindus and Muslims and they also divide Hindus. But, regional parties are strong enough to tackle them," she asserted.

Asked if she treated the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD as her natural ally, the Bengal chief minister appeared reluctant to commit herself but said she had a lot of respect for Odisha's ruling party.

On whether she would support a candidate proposed by Naveen in the upcoming presidential polls, Mamata said she would talk to her Odisha counterpart if he came up with a proposal.

In the last presidential election, Naveen's party had thrown its weight behind P.A. Sangma even though it meant aligning with the BJP, a party he has maintained a safe distance from since 2009 when the BJD's 11-year-old alliance with BJP came to an end in Odisha.

Ever since, Naveen has been following the policy of equal distance from the BJP and the Congress, but the anti-BJP parties would like the BJD to vote with them if there is a contest for the office of the President this time.

Mamata, who was presented with a shawl and a silver filigree memento by Naveen, recalled her association with the late Biju Patnaik, his father.

"I was a young minister of state when he was the Odisha chief minister. He was very fond of me. Once I was in Raipur and he sent a plane to fetch me from there," she reminisced while paying her respects to Biju babu and his wife, Gyan Patnaik.

She also spoke of her strong bonds with Odisha, saying that the neighbouring states had great respect for each other.

"Naveen is the chief minister here, and I belong to Bengal. We keep in touch," she said.

Both Naveen and Mamata, though, described their meeting as a courtesy gesture where no politics was discussed.

While Naveen blocked all queries from the media asserting that there was "no political discussion" between them, Mamata was more forthcoming and fielded questions from journalists.

Mamata is the second non-BJP leader to meet Naveen in the past one month after Nitish Kumar, who called on Naveen on March 7 when the Bihar chief minister had visited Odisha to attend the funeral of former Lok Sabha Speaker Rabi Ray.