Bhubaneswar: To expand the saffron cover and boost the morale of the party in Odisha ahead of the 2024 elections, BJP national president JP Nadda is scheduled to address more than 25,000 party workers at an event in Bhubaneswar during his two-day visit to the state, party sources said on Monday.
Nadda is scheduled to arrive in Odisha on September 29. This is first visit to the state after becoming the national president.
He will hold meetings and brainstorming sessions with senior leaders to make strategies for the 2024 general elections and achieve ‘Mission 120+’. He is also likely to attend several party events in Bhubaneswar, Puri and Cuttack.
The BJP chief will also offer prayers at Jagannath Temple in Puri, the sources added.
Notably, The BJP recently held a state-level training camp to ready its workers for the 2024 elections. The programme was attended by party MLAs, MPs, district presidents and state office bearers. National general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh and newly appointed Odisha in-charge Sunil Bansal were present.
‘Mission 120+’ was Amit Shah’s strategy to bag more than 120 seats in the Odisha Assembly of 147 seats in the 2019 election. The party, however, failed to achieve it as Naveen Patnaik took oath for the fifth term as chief minister of Odisha.
During his August 8 visit, Amit Shah asked state BJP leaders to brace for the 2024 election without wasting time and achieve this goal. He also took stock of the steps taken by the party to strengthen the booth committee after the party’s debacle in urban and panchayat polls.
While claiming that the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will come back to power at the Centre with a two-third majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he also expressed confidence that the party will form the government in Odisha after the Assembly polls scheduled to be held in the same year.
Notably, Bansal replaced D Purandeswari as in-charge of the Odisha unit of the party, along with West Bengal and Telangana, soon after Shah’s two-day visit to the state. His appointment was seen as a move by BJP to strengthen the party apparatus in these states, which are being ruled by regional parties, ahead of the 2024 elections.
Bansal was the general secretary (organisation) in Uttar Pradesh and one of the major planners of the party’s win in the UP elections in 2017 and 2022. He also worked closely with Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is from Odisha, in UP Assembly polls held in February-March, 2022. Dharmendra was the state election in-charge
