Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit Odisha twice in January 2019, party sources familiar with the development said on Friday. Modi is scheduled to visit Baripada in Mayurbhanj district in northen Odisha on January 5 and is slated to address a public meeting at Bolangir in the western part of the state on January 16, state BJP general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan told.
The back to back visits of the prime minister is seen as BJP‘s efforts to strengthen the organizational structure of the party state in a run-up to the 2019 general elections. The state assembly polls are slated to be held along with the Lok Sabha polls and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik led Biju Janta Dal (BJD) government will seek the fifth term in the state.
The prime minister had visited Odisha on December 24 and addressed a public meeting at Khurda apart from launching a number of projects, including a new campus of IIT Bhubaneswar and foundation stone of IISER Berhampur. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his day-long visit to Odisha laid the foundation stone for several developmental projects worth Rs 14,523 crore under the Centre’s ‘Purvodaya’ vision.
In the meanwhile, Party President Amit Shah is slated to visit Tripura on January 5 to take stock of party preparations for next Lok Sabha 2019 elections. The Party has not planned any Mass Rally during this visit of Shah and will keep the visit purely organizational.