Bhubaneswar: In an indication of Mayurbhanj’s growing importance for Biju Janata Dal (BJD) ahead of the polls, party president and Chief Miniser Naveen Patnaik will visit the district twice in five days, beginning January 30.
BJD observer and Nayagarh MLA Arun Kumar Sahoo informed the media about his visit on Tuesday.
The CM, during his visit on January 30 and February 3, is slated to make some major announcement linked to socio-economic development of the region.
Naveen’s back-to-back visit is being seen by political observers as concerted attempts by the BJD government to strengthen its base there and nutralise gains, which BJP would have achieved following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Baripada on January 5.
According to sources, the CM, during his visit, will inaugurate some projects and review a few others.
Modi, during his Baripada trip on January 5, had inaugurated projects worth Rs 4500 crore including four laning of key national highways, inauguration of a section of IOCL LPG Pipeline, doubling of a key railway line and flagging off a new passenger train.
Mayurbhanj has traditionally been considered a BJP stronghold. The party had put up a good show in the zilla parshad elections in 2017.
But it received a setback just days after Modi visit in January when party candidate for Rairangpur assembly constituency of Mayurbhanj district in 2009 polls, Kashinath Hembrum, joined BJD on January 10 in the presence of chief minister Naveen Patnaik. Hembrum was accompanied by hundreds of district-level BJP leaders and workers.
