Bhubaneswar, Sept. 23: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik skipped the National Integration Council (NIC) meeting in New Delhi today fuelling speculations that he was inching closer to the BJP.

The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, and his Chhattisgarh counterpart Raman Singh also stayed away from the meeting called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Though no reasons were cited for Naveen’s absence in the meeting, where copies of his speech were circulated, sources said the move was aimed at keeping options open even after Modi’s choice as BJP’s candidate for the country’s top job has created a flutter across the country.

Union minister of state for chemical and fertilisers Srikant Jena had recently caused a political controversy by alleging that Naveen was friends with Modi and that the BJD might revive its alliance with the BJP in the state.

Naveen’s absence at the NIC meet raised eyebrows because he had no pressing engagements in the state today. He spent the day attending his party’s Yuba Sampark (youth contact) committee meeting on tribal affairs in Bhuba-neswar apart from receiving a delegation of lawyers from undivided Koraput district.

Sources said both the engagements could easily have been deferred but the chief minister was apparently in no mood to go to Delhi. The copies of his speech were carried to Delhi by Vipin Saxena, the state’s resident commissioner in the national capital.

Though Naveen has been publicly professing the policy of maintaining equal distance from both the BJP and the Congress, speculation is rife that he might join hands with his former allies to end his current spell of isolation in national politics.

“In politics, no one is untouchable and with the Third Front plans not working out, it will not be surprising if he revives his alliance with the BJP in the event of a hung Parliament after the 2014 general election,” said a BJD source.

Significantly, Naveen has not spoken a word against Modi despite many politicians slamming the Gujarat chief minister for his brand of politics. It was perhaps his intriguing silence on Modi that prompted Jena to accuse Naveen of maintaining secret ties with the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate.

In his speech circulated at the NIC meeting, Naveen argued in favour of a mechanism to control social networking sites in critical situations as sensitive message posted on these sites spread like wildfire. He also urged the Centre to promptly respond to the call of states for armed forces to effectively deal with communal conflagrations.