Bhubaneswar: Set to undertake his maiden visit to Odisha after becoming BJP national president, JP Nadda is slated to reach Bhubaneswar on September 29 morning for his two-day tour during which he is likely to kick-start campaign for the 2024 general elections.
Nadda will reach Bhubaneswar airport at 10 am on September 29 and he will be escorted to the party state headquarters in a procession, BJP state general secretary Golak Mohapatra told reporters.
Thereafter, the BJP president will attend a panchayat-level conference at Janata Maidan in Bubaneswar at 11 am, he said. Nadda is likely to virtually kick-start campaign for the Lok Sabha and Odisha Assembly elections due in 2024 by addressing the meeting.
Later in the day, he is scheduled to attend a series of meetings with district unit presidents, party MLAs, MPs, office bearers and former MLAs and MPs at the state party office before leaving for Puri.
Nadda will visit Jagannath temple and pay obeisance to the deities on September 30 morning before proceeding to Bhadrak where he is slated to meet the family members of Bishnu Charan Sethi, who passed away recently.
On his return from Bhadrak, Nadda will attend another meeting of the party at Janata Maidan in Bhubaneswar before conclusion of his visit the same evening.
Ahead of Nadda’s tour, BJP Odisha in-charge Sunil Bansal visited Bhubaneswar to review arrangements for the programmes of the party president. Party sources said he discussed the tasks assigned during his previous visit to the state. Bansal had attended a training camp for its workers at Puri from September 13 to 15.
This will be the first visit of Nadda after he took over as national president of the BJP in 2019.
Nadda’s visit comes close on the heels of the Odisha tour of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in August. Shah, considered the chief strategist of the saffron party, asked state BJP leaders to brace for the 2024 election without wasting time and achieve Mission 120+. 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 due the same year.
