Bhubaneswar: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president J P Nadda and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will raise the poll pitch for upcoming elections in Odisha on Sunday, while adding further impetus to their respective party workers and cadres.
According to BJP sources, Nadda will arrive at Biju Patnaik International Airport here at 4.30 pm. He will directly proceed to to Rangeilunda airstrip by a helicopter and address a public meeting at Ambapua near Berhampur town in Ganjam district. He will also have an “exhaustive interaction” with the party’s workers of three Lok Sabha constituencies – Berhampur, Koraput and Nabarangpur, which are going to poll in the first-round elections in Odisha on May 13.
The Berhampur LS seat is set to witness an interesting battle between two defectors. While the BJP has fielded Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Panigrahi, an expelled BJD leader who joined the saffron camp in February, BJD’s candidate Bhrugu Baxipatra, who was the vice president of state BJP, got the ticket within a few hours of switching sides. For the Koraput and Nabarangpur seats, the BJP has fielded Kaliram Majhi and Balabhadra Majhi respectively.
Nadda’s visit comes three days after party heavyweight and Union Home Minister Amit Shah sounded the poll bugle for BJP during a election rally in Sonepur. He also held crucial meeting with state leaders of 13 parliamentary constituencies here.
Rahul Gandhi, on the other hand, will kick-start his campaign in Odisha from Salepur in coastal Cuttack district. He is expected to arrive at Bhubaneswar airport at 11.40 am and then take a chopper to Satyabhamapur, where he will pay homage to Madhusudan Das, an architect of modern Odisha, on his 176th birth anniversary. He will then address ‘Nyaya Samavesh’ at Kulia in Salepur.
Leaders and workers of Cuttack, Kendrapada, Bhadrak, and Jagatsinghpur will be attending the rally, party sources said.
“We are eagerly waiting for our leader Rahul Gandhi’s arrival. He knows Odisha quite well. All of us know that he has special affinity with the tribals of our state. His speech at the Salipur public rally will surely instill spirits and enthusiasm in our workers and leaders, as well,” senior Congress leader Biswa Mohan Mohanty told the media.
