SAMBALPUR: THE RSS chief, Mohan Madhukar Bhagawat, will chair Khetriya Baithak (convention) of six RSS organisational States and address public meeting in Sambalpur from January 21 to January 23.
While political observers attribute the visit of BJP president Amit Shah to Odisha on January 20 to the RSS event, sources in RSS denied that the visit of Shah had anything to do with the visit of Bhagwat.
Sources in the RSS said that Bhagwat will preside over the Khetriya Baithak for two days on January 20 and 21 followed by a public meeting on January 23.
The joint secretary of RSS, V Bhaigaih, is also slated to attend the Baithak along with 250 delegates from organisational districts of RSS from Odisha, West Bengal, the Andaman and Nicobar islands and Sikkim. On January 23, the RSS chief will address a public meeting at Mandalia ground in Sambalpur.
RSS functionaries and workers have fanned out across Western Odisha to make the function a success. Sources in the RSS said the meeting is aimed at impressing youths about the objective of RSS and drawing them towards the Hindu nationalist organisation.
Observers, however, believe that the meeting has a political undertone and the address by Bhagwat is aimed at motivating and activating RSS workers across the region to give a boost to the BJP in Western Odisha. Pranta Prachar Pramukh Biswaranjan Pujari said it was a routine meeting of the RSS. He denied that there was any political undertone in the meeting.