Union Home Minister Amit Shah Likely To Begin 2-Day Odisha Visit From Tomorrow

By OB Bureau On Aug 3, 2023

Amit Shah bats for hindi — Picture courtesy NDTV

Bhubaneswar: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to undertake a two-day visit to Odisha from Friday.

According to sources, Shah is likely to arrive in Bhubaneswar on Friday on his two-day visit to the state. The Home Minister is likely to attend some government programmes during his visit to the state.

Shah is expected to arrive in Bhubaneswar on Friday night and attend government programmes on Saturday. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is also slated to attend the event.

The Union Home Minister and the Chief Minister are slated to attend review meetings on August 5. Shah will attend review meeting on Left Wing Extremism (LWE) & Disaster Management in Bhubaneswar. Naveen will also be present at both the review meetings.

This apart, both Shah and Naveen are also slated to attend inauguration of National Highway projects.

The BJP stalwart is slated to attend a party programme in the state capital on Saturday afternoon, but details are yet to be made available. The Home Minister will return to New Delhi the same day.

Earlier, Shah’s visit to Odisha scheduled on June 17 had been put on hold in view of the extraordinary situation caused by Cyclone Biparjoy, which affected Gujarat.

Shah’s visit assumes political significance as the discussions are now being held at national and state level over the ties between Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Different speculations are being made by political analysts regarding BJD-BJP equations after the Naveen Patnaik-led party announced its decision to support the bill replacing the Delhi services ordinance and oppose the no-confidence motion proposed by various opposition parties against the NDA government.

While BJD claims to have maintained equidistance from both BJP and Congress, the regional party has been supporting the Narendra Modi dispensation at the Centre in almost all issues since 2019. The BJD had lent its support to the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019 (Reorganisation Bill) and bills proposing changes to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the RTI Acts and criminalising triple talaq.

The BJD had also nominated Ashwini Vaishnaw, to the Rajya Sabha, on the request of Prime Minister and the Home Minister.